DepEd curriculum: Boon or bane?

By Sheila Crisostomo  | Updated June 7, 2002 - 12:00am

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Millions of students are scheduled to return to public schools next week to a revised curriculum aimed at
improving the standard of education in the country. But the government is having such a tough time selling the
idea to educators and congressmen that the plan may be delayed.

The strong resistance from prominent educators has triggered a congressional inquiry into the Revised Basic
Education Curriculum (RBEC), whose pilot testing is scheduled for the opening of public schools on Monday.
One of the opponents of the RBEC, Sen. Blas Ople, is expected to file a motion seeking to delay the curriculum
by a year.

As Education Secretary Raul Roco argued, at stake is the standard of Philippine education, which is vital to the
country’s future.

"We are told repeatedly that education in the country has deteriorated," Roco said.

To fix the problem, the department has come up with the RBEC.

"It is the product of 16 years’ study and seven years of intensive consul-tations,"Roco said.

The government has not revised the curriculum for public elementary schools in 13 years. Meanwhile, the
curriculum for public high schools has not been changed for almost two decades, in sharp contrast to the
general practice worldwide, which calls for a revision every 10 years.

That is why the RBEC, which is responsive to the ever-changing world, is badly needed, senior education
department officials argued.

"To actualize a gracious life in our changing world, Filipino learners need an education system that empowers
them for a lifelong learning, or (the system) that enables them to be (more) competent in learning how to learn
even when they are left to themselves," said Dr. Fe Hidalgo, education undersecretary for programs.

"We want them not only to learn how to read but to understand what they read," she added. "Our (old)
curriculum has so many offerings but we have the shortest period of basic education — six years for the
elementary (level) and four years for high school for a total of 10 years. Other countries have 12 years."

The RBEC has been drawn from various studies, particularly that of the Committee on Information Technology,
Science and Mathematics, Education and Technologies. This committee is under the Presidential Commission
on Education Reforms.

The committee’s finding showed that elementary curriculum in the Philippines, particularly for Grades 1-
3, is overcrowded. Having too many subjects to study, the committee said, "limits the extent to which teachers
and students can focus on the basic skills critically important for good performance and success in later grade
levels."
Hidalgo said an overcrowded curriculum either hinders or delays the development of the lifelong learning skills,
given that the coverage of the subject matters tends to take priority over in-depth learning.

Meanwhile, the committee’s report also suggested that the government review the secondary curriculum,
citing the fact that the mean percentage of the National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT) scores among
high school students is only 50 percent.

Moreover, the Philippines was ranked close to last in the result of the International Mathematics and Science
Study in 1999. Among the 38 nations participating in the test, the Philippines was ranked 36th. That reflected
the poor standard of Philippine education, officials said.

One of the areas of changes the RBEC calls for is reducing the core courses to five from eight. The courses
are Filipino, English, science and mathematics — the so-called "tool subjects" — and Makabayan.

Called "the laboratory of life," Makabayan will be the practice environment for the tool subjects. It is designed to
help the students develop better interpersonal skills, empathy will cultures, vocational efficiency and problem-
solving and decision-making skills.

The components of the elementary Makabayan include Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies), Edukasyong
Pantahanan (Home Economics), Musika (Music), Sining (Art), Edukasyong Pangkatawan (Health Education),
and good manners and right conduct.

For high schools, the Makabayan components are social studies, Teknolohiya at Edukasyong Pantahanan at
Pangkabuhayan (Education Technology at Home and Work), Musika, Sining at Edukasyong Pangkatawan at
Pangkalusugan and Edukasyong Pagpapahalaga (Values).

Other elements of RBEC are patriotism, experiential learning and self-sufficiency.

"Our vision is to equip the students with life skills so that they become self-developed persons," said Hidalgo.
"These elements can also be found in the existing curriculum but we just wanted to strengthen them through
RBEC."

Some loopholes
The components of the RBEC have drawn harsh criticisms from various educators, who said the education
department is undermining the disciplines integrated in the subject.

One of the critics of the revised curriculum is Nilo Rosas, former undersecretary for regional operations of the
department. Rosas, who is now the president of the Philippine Normal University (PNU), said the RBEC has
some loopholes.

"The methods of content delivery, application of new technologies and integration mechanism (that teachers
must use) are not clearly defined," he said. So, although he supports the pilot testing of the RBEC, Rosas said
it should be open to revision if necessary.
"A well-defined in-service training on these new strategies and technologies must be done at every level," he
said. "Principles of integration and interactivity must be fully understood and translated into actual classroom
strategies."

Rosas also warned that "merely retelling" the teachers how to use certain teaching strategy is not enough.

Associate Professor Felice Yeban, who teaches social studies at the PNU, shares Rosas’ view. Although
Yeban agreed that there is a need to reform the national curriculum, she is unsure if the RBEC is the panacea
for the problems of Philippine education.

"My concern now is the preparations made by the DepEd, or the lack of it, and how they came up with the
formula," she said. "Is RBEC the answer? It seems that DepEd is in a rush to implement this."

Yeban also argued that the time allotment for the tool subjects in the revised curriculum is extended at the
expense of the Makabayan subjects. Any increase on the time allotment for a certain subject will result in the
reduction of the time allotment for other disciplines, she added.

"No one can categorically say or would admit if there are subjects that will be watered down under the
restructured curriculum," Yeban said. "It is not clear how Makabayan will be taught. It’s not like
chopsuey....There is no learning syllabus for teachers. DepEd leaves the principals to implement RBEC and
many of them are now confused."

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) is now urging the department to delay the implementation of
RBEC. Carol Almeda, the alliance’s president and a University of the Philippines professor, also charged
that international organizations are the force behind RBEC.

"RBEC is not based on the need of the students — this is merely an imposition of giant financial
institutions like the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank in exchange for loans," she said.

But the department has won strong support from the Federation of Associations of Private School
Administrators, which said the RBEC is the "right medicine" for the Philippine educational standard. "It should
be administered immediately," said Eleazar Kasilag, FAPSA president.

While private schools are not required to follow the RBEC, Eleazar said many of the FAPSA’s members
are now preparing to adopt the revised curriculum as their own.

As of May 27, the department has trained half a million Philippine teachers and school officials for the revised
curriculum–more than 44,000 people more than the target the department had previously set. This is
because some private teachers and substitute mentors have also participated in the training, Secretary Roco
said.

The department will review the curriculum after one year of implementing it. But first it has to convince
Congress and educators that the RBEC is worth a try.
Issues in Philippine Education: In Retrospect
By Engr. Herman M. Lagon

January 6, 2010 Iloilo City, Philippines

(Last of two series)

Reform efforts have been relatively successful in places where “a determined commitment from local
communities, parents and teachers” has been obtained, backed up by “continuing dialogue and various
forms of outside financial, technical or professional assistance.” Former Education Secretary Edilberto de
Jesus, in a seminar conducted in Ateneo de Manila University last July, 2009 which this reporter
incidentally attended, commented that all initiatives to improve the quality of education are laudable, but
they have to be at a sufficient scale to make significant change. In this context, decentralization makes a
lot of sense. Our collective experience with forming local education alliances shows that organizing
communities—including the teachers and school personnel—for school-level reform is a very viable and
cost-effective education quality initiative.

4. Learning begins with teachers, and empowered teachers and school heads are at the heart of genuine
education reform. It is not enough that our teachers just go along for the ride in our drive toward quality
education. They must lead the way in preparing our children and young people for lifelong learning. While
doing this, it is just common sense to say that they must be given enough opportunity, tools, and
motivation to achieve this.

In summary, like any endeavor, to improve quality education, issues, concerns and suggestions will
always be raised. This is true with innovations, be it small or big. Just like when we want to change for the
better there will always be obstacles to overcome, or when we are removed from our comfort zones, we
will always have some complaints. For every action, there will always be a corresponding reaction. Each
enumerated issue and concern gets a corresponding response. This is natural law.

Due to its vast and complicated nature, the following issues and trends in the country’s educational
curriculum are enumerated for purpose of reflection:

Bridge Program, Sex Education Curriculum and RH Bill, Random Drug Testing, CAT and ROTC retro,
Use-English or Vernacular policy, Additional Year in Basic Education, Understanding by Design (UBD)
and Whole Brain Learning System (WBLS), Erratic books and reference materials, Lack of facilities, Low
and unreliable salary and benefit of teachers, Traditional politics in the DepEd and Ched world,
Technical-vocational trend, Five years in college plan, Malnutrition and sanitation, Alleged DepEd Mafia,
Time assignment of subjects, Teachers’ training, Cheating in assessment and aptitude tests,
Unsupervised, unevaluated programs, Collaboration with community and business sector, and SEDP vs
BEC (SEDP is said to be overcrowded, putting together too many competencies and topics. This results to
the loss of mastery of basic skills, narrow opportunity to process and contextualize major concepts and
weak interconnections of competencies. On the other hand, BEC (according to IBON Facts and Figures)
caters to the needs of multinational corporations for highly skilled and technically proficient workers at
the expense of nationalism. To note, BEC aims to produce more functionally literate students by
empowering them with life skills and promote more ideal teachers that will perform collaborative
teaching and transcending knowledge in a non-authoritative way of instructing. It has reduced the
number of subjects from an average of eight to five, focusing on Filipino, English, Science and Math,
which according to former Education Secretary Raul Roco, will prepare students for global
competitiveness. A fifth subject, Makabayan, also called as the “laboratory of life,” instructs complete
learning to students.

After understanding all these, what is to be done? In my own limited knowledge of the state of curricular
condition of the nation, I have learned the following:

1. All reform efforts must be anchored on learning and improving student performance. The
Philippines signed the UNESCO Education for All Jomtien Declaration in 1990 and the Dakar
Framework 10 years later. Through these landmark documents, the Philippines affirmed that “the
focus of basic education must, therefore, be on actual learning acquisition and outcome, rather
than exclusively upon enrollment, continued participation in organized programs and completion
of certification requirements.” And yet to this day, our best educators continue to decry that our
education system puts more emphasis on “credentializing” the learner.
2. Quick fixes and a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Education reform requires “a patient,
concerted and negotiated strategy.” Consider, for instance, the existing 10-year basic education
cycle vis-à-vis the minimum learning competencies prescribed in the Revised Basic Education
Curriculum (RBEC). The cycle is so compressed that teachers barely have enough time to, well,
teach. Meanwhile, the learner is hard-pressed to absorb all the things the RBEC says he should be
learning within the allotted time frame. On top of that, the learner needs to hurdle the medium of
instruction during the early years, which is either Filipino or English. The 10-year basic education
cycle and the medium of instruction are education policies crying out for reform, but these two
issues are fraught with social, political and cultural ramifications. Simply asking for official
promulgations will not be enough. There needs to be a continuing discourse on these issues;
otherwise the reform initiative could very likely fizzle out.
3. Lack of (or Poor) Regular Monitoring and Evaluation. After a new curriculum has been installed,
it is left unattended. Inadequate monitoring activities to find out curricular strengths or
weaknesses and problems are being encountered. Very little means is provided to find out if the
implementation is running smoothly or not. When the time of implementation ends, sometimes
there is no evaluation aspect, thus the innovation cannot be judged as failure or success for it to
be continued or not.
4. Teacher Burn Out. With so many new changes taking place in the curriculum, many teachers are
getting burn out. They get tired so easily and motivation is very low. It is so because—aside from
receiving one of the lowest salaries and poorest privileges and conditions in the country—they
cannot cope with rapid changes that take place. They themselves cannot adjust to the changes
that are being introduced, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. They would prefer the “good
old” days and stick to what they had been doing which are not anymore compatible with the
times.
5. Innovations are Not Communicated to All. Only the managers or the proponents understand the
changes. Those who are directly involved merely follow hook line and sinker. This is called
regimentation. Changes, when introduced this way, may falter along the way because the people
involved are not empowered.