REFRAMING GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION FOR FILIPINO LEARNERS

The Department of Education has cemented the Philippines’ increasingly vital role in heeding the call to produce global citizens and lifelong learners.

According to Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones, while concepts of global citizenship are fairly straightforward, the condition of the youth in the developed countries differ from those in the developing countries.

Thusm reframing citizenship education is necessary due to the perceptions and conceptions as shaped by one’s history and defined by experience.

Briones said that while the UNESCO global citizenship education framework focuses on what to teach, there is a need to understand learners more in terms of their conceptions of the global.

The engagement of a number of Filipino youth with the world in the last two decades is broadly experienced through the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). While the financial benefits are indisputable, the social and emotional costs on the youth and their families are similarly significant.

Because history and experience in engaging the world are important factors, leadership is certainly crucial, Briones said.

Leaders should be able to chart a course of history that is more tolerant, kinder, and more equitable. They should be able to build societies that offer positive engagements for families across the globe.

Keeping school-age children in school until completion of basic education and expanding the Alternative Learning System (ALS), among the top priorities of DepEd, are reflected in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s common development plan of not leaving anyone behind.

DepEd is also fostering critical thinking and appreciation of one’s history and culture – important components of promoting global citizenship and sustainable education – among basic education learners.

--oOo— The author is Master Teacher I at Porac Elementary School