Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte praised the MATATAG curriculum—the revised K to 10 curriculum under the K–12 program as a relevant step in improving basic education towards a rapidly changing landscape in the country.
"We believe that our MATATAG curriculum is a very good one," said Duterte in a statement on Wednesday, March 20.
However, she stressed that a good curriculum is "not enough."
It still needs "very good teachers" to teach, regional directors, superintendents, and supervisors for effective implementation.
Looking back, the secretary said the curriculum "needed so much work."
She acknowledged past shortcomings in the curriculum and cited congested content, misplaced learning areas, and excessive cognitive load, particularly in early years.
With that being the case, she highlighted that it was "clear that we could not keep doing things the same old way."
DepEd said the curriculum is a dynamic document that is capable of evolving to remain relevant to the needs of learners in a rapidly changing education landscape.
In August 2023, the department launched the MATATAG curriculum for Kinder to Grade 10.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2023/9/10/piloting-the-matatag-curriculum
She described the new curriculum as the result of countless hours of dedicated work by our team of experts, both here and abroad.
"They have worked in close collaboration with members of the public — including parents, teachers, and students — who generously gave their time and input to help us create a strong and effective curriculum," Duterte said.
According to her, when implemented well with good teachers in the field, the curriculum can greatly support "learning recovery" efforts and "improve student learning outcomes."
More than that, Duterte pointed out that the curriculum can equip the learners with relevant and essential knowledge, skills, and values that they need to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing global community.
Nonetheless, in order to do that, the secretary of education stressed that they need to work together to enable the successful teaching and learning of the curriculum.
"Simply put, we need to implement the curriculum well, we need to remind everyone to work together," she said.
It was also highlighted that implementing the new curriculum in over 40,000 schools nationwide is a huge challenge. Yet, the department expressed its gratitude towards the 35 schools that have taken the initiative to implement it before others.
Just recently, DepEd announced during the National Summit of the MATATAG Curriculum Pilot Implementers held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City last February 16 the rollout of training in regions for division instructional leaders in the coming weeks.
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For this training, DepEd expressed its anticipation for the school-based training for teachers to be conducted through collaborative expertise sessions through the Learning Action Cells.
"This concerted effort to train our teachers underscores our solid commitment to providing them with the support they need to succeed," she said.
She then extended her gratitude to pilot implementers for accepting the challenge of taking the first plunge into the MATATAG curriculum and included the teachers in the pilot schools.
"You are the first to embrace the MATATAG curriculum. You are the first to teach it. It is never easy to be the first to implement. Thank you very much for your courage, work, dedication, and service to our country," Duterte added.