As public schools reopened last week, the Department of Education (DepEd) unveiled a redesigned Kindergarten to Grade 10 (K to 10) basic education curriculum that focuses on five learning competencies to strengthen the young learners’ foundational skills in Language, Reading and Literacy, Math, Makabansa, and Good Manners and Right Conduct.
The new curriculum will be piloted this school year 2023-2024, then implemented in three phases from 2024 to 2027.
Also last week, the DepEd told the House of Representatives that there is a shortage of 165,000 classrooms and at the current annual rate – less than 20,000 was budgeted for construction – it would take over 20 years for this shortage to be covered.
In mid-2021, while coronavirus pandemic raged on, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies identified “five problems that result in poor learning outcomes that need to be urgently addressed: a) implementation inefficiencies; b) malnutrition; c) lack of textbooks; d) school connectivity; and e) teacher quality.”
Given these adverse realities, it is not surprising that in a recent Pulse Asia survey commissioned by the chairperson of the Senate committee on education, it was revealed that there was an almost equal number of respondents – 42 percent dissatisfied, 41 percent satisfied – with contradictory assessments of their experience with senior high school. A DepED task force will start tackling the senior highschool curriculum shortly.
Amid this rather uninspiring scenario, the Philippine News Agency (PNA) reports that at the recent 64th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) held in Chiba, Japan, six Filipino students won three silver medals and three bronze medals. Earlier this year, 19 young Filipinos clinched gold medals at the World International Mathematical Olympiad (WIMO) in Bangkok, Thailand. These exceptional achievements demonstrate that, properly trained and guided, young Filipinos could match and even outperform their peers.
Despite this proverbial silver lining, it is imperative that decisive steps are taken to address these serious problems affecting the education, health and development of the Filipino youth.
A multi-sectoral Children’s First One Thousand Days Coalition (CFDC) has been launched in determined efforts to stem the tide of malnutrition and stunting, described vividly by UNICEF: “Every day, 95 children in the Philippines die from malnutrition. Twenty-seven out of 1,000 Filipino children do not get past their fifth birthday. A third of Filipino children are stunted, or short for their age. Stunting after two years of age can be permanent, irreversible, and even fatal.”
The Department of Social Work and Community Development is at the nexus of continuing efforts to address these problems that are deeply rooted in poverty and social inequality through the Philippine Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP), Food Stamp Program (FSP) and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
To fully recover from the massive declines caused by the pandemic, the government must take decisive action to fast-track the clearing of the classroom backlog, hire and train qualified teachers, provide needed textbooks and install digital connectivity. Political will is extremely important. If this is demonstrated convincingly, the people will certainly rally behind their government, declaring “Yes, we can!”