THE CATCH-UP FRIDAYS
SHARON S. PASCUAL
As they say, change is the only permanent thing in this world. A change needs to happen in order to improve a system, meet the changing needs of it and achieve its pre-set targets. Recently, the Department of Education cascades a memorandum that definitely has caused an innovation in the basic education. This shall be coined as “the Catch-Up Fridays”. The implementation of Catch-up Fridays is founded on the following reasons. Filipino learners have low proficiency level in reading based on the results of both national and international large-scale assessment. In the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment which tested 15-year old students across 79 countries, Filipino student ranked the lowest in reading comprehension and second lowest in Science and Mathematics. While the learning loss brought by the absence of face to face instructions due to Covid-19 pandemic, adds to the reason why there is a curb in the academic performances of Filipino learners. The low academic performance is attributed to low comprehension among students. In addition, the program also aims to intensify the instructions in Values, Health and Peace Education which will eventually enable Filipino learners to acquire and strengthen peace competencies allowing to become peace builders and advocates in their respective communities while Health Education demands stronger advocacy to ensure the overall health and well-being of learners. In the DepEd Memorandum no. 001, s.2024, Catch-Up Fridays is described as a learning mechanism that will strengthen the foundational, social and other relevant skills of learners necessary to actualize the intent of the basic education curriculum. This will be implemented beginning January 12, 2024 until all Fridays throughout the school year, across elementary and secondary schools and community learning centers nationwide. It is non-graded. Learners are expected to write stories, reflective journals, personal essays and other creative expressions to describe their learning experiences or progress having the Catch-up Friday lessons. In the first half of Fridays, teachers are expected to facilitate reading instructions to their students, either giving them reading intervention or reading enrichment activities. While the second half of Fridays will be spent in teaching Values, Health and Peace Education and the Homeroom Guidance Program. With this new initiative in education, teachers as the implementers of the program, are engage in trainings and other professional development activities to equip and prepare themselves and to better realize their duties as implementers of the curriculum and facilitators of learning.
-oOoThe author is Teacher III at Sto Tomas ES, Sto Tomas District