FACT: The implementation of the K to 12 Program or Republic Act 10533 Enhanced Basic Education Act is a crucial step towards creating a functional basic education system that equips students with essential competencies and skills for lifelong learning and employment.
We all could agree that this fact sounds too good to be true or at least it was a decent and honest intention of the Department of Education in improving the basic education sector as the new program promotes a student-centered curriculum that gives students more freedom to choose their own learning paths, provides enough time to master a particular track or subject, and improves competency in the global job market.
But as the Secretary of Education, Vice President Sara Duterte herself had pointed out in her Basic Education Report 2023 last month that there are challenges that continuously beset the aims of the department despite its collective effort and in working tirelessly to provide adequate materials and facilities to schools for its successful implementation.
Moreover, VP-Secretary Duterte particularly articulated that there is an urgent need to “decongest” our current curriculum. We could not agree more with this proposition. This has been observed and reported pre-pandemic and it is only now that we get to our senses and do something about it. The K12 journey is a long road already and revisiting it and revising it is no joke at all.
With the plethora of perennial challenges we face in pre-pandemic times such as classroom shortages, textbooks, and other school facilities coupled with learning gaps and losses brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is high time that we seriously revisit our curriculum and realign our goals and priorities in the basic education sector. And despite these challenges, we must support this pressing call to endeavor in revitalizing and revising the curriculum and give our best to produce highly productive Filipino youth for the betterment of our country. As a teacher and a parent, I am one with DepEd in this journey. Para sa Bata. Para sa Bayan.
By: MRS. MARIA CRISTINA Z. REYES | TEACHER III | BATAAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL – JHS | BALANGA CITY, BATAAN
