The Department of Education (DepEd) said Tuesday that it is set to launch the revised curriculum for Kinder to Grade 10 (K to 10) in a few weeks.
In a press briefing, Education Undersecretary Michael Poa announced that they are launching the newly revised curriculum for implementation for School Year 2024 to 2025 after it underwent careful consideration and review.
“There are a lot of learning competencies that have yet to be learned by students within a school year, and our teachers also face the same bombardment which makes the mastery of key subjects very difficult,” Poa told reporters.
The Education undersecretary also emphasized that the opinions of the general public, the academe, and experts were put into consideration before they finalized the revisions for the K-10 curriculum.
“We will allot more time for the fundamentals such as math, science, English, reading, and values formation subjects. That is the gist of the revised K to 10 curriculum,” he added.
Poa also stated that the K-12 program is still under review after the general public had expressed dissatisfaction with the additional two years of senior high school in the country’s education system.
“The aim of senior high school is to align the curriculum with industry demand and to make students employable. But we have to admit, that is not happening,” Poa said.
A national task force has been formed to review it, he said.
Poa announced that the Department of Education is planning to use online or hybrid learning to decongest schools more effectively and efficiently in a quicker span of time without having to sacrifice education quality.
DepEd and officials from the Commission on Higher Education met President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Malacañang to present their accomplishments ahead of the President’s State-of-the-Nation Address.
“During the pandemic, we realized that we could use blended learning and online classes,” Poa said in a mix of Filipino and English. “So, we want to use that to be able to decongest our schools. This will effectively and efficiently resolve the issues related to teachers shortage and classroom shortage in a quicker span of time.”
However, before implementing the blended learning, Poa said DepEd has to make sure that the program to be adopted is effective to ensure quality education.
In carrying out the program, Poa said DepEd will be looking at best practices even in the private sector to ensure that blended learning, once it is implemented, will not affect the quality of education.
DepEd is also collaborating with CHED through the Teachers Education Council (TEC) to improve the education system.