The Second Congressional Commission on Education’s (EDCOM 2) disclosed that monitoring student bullying inside the school campus has posed a significant challenge to teachers.
This is amid the fact that anti-bullying policies, such as Social and Emotional Learning, are “embedded” in the MATATAG curriculum.
EDCOM 2 spelled out the factors to this challenge as high teacher-student ratio, difficulty in curriculum implementation and the mismatch between teachers’ training and their assigned subjects.
Although there is a curriculum document, EDCOM 2 Standing Committee for Basic Education member and De La Salle University Prof. Dr. Allan Bernardo cited the need to know what is actually happening in classroom
“How do you know that the documents you develop are actually being implemented?” asked Bernardo.
Jona Kristen Valdez, DepEd Senior Education Specialist, mentioned efforts to integrate SEL anti-bullying, and rights-based education lessons into the MATATAG curriculum.
Manuals and materials around these competencies are developed and distributed to the regions and divisions, but she said monitoring if teachers actually know and apply these principles, however, is a challenge.
Mr. Elias K. Santos II, LRPO Focal Person from the Division of Valenzuela City, shared that their experiential approach to teacher training has been effective and that there should be passion in teaching SEL.
At the Division level, he also shared that Valenzuela City’s Local School Board has also taken proactive measures by placing guidance coordinators or advocates in schools to address the shortage of Registered Guidance Counselors (RGCs).
Santos further noted that incorporating anti-bullying initiatives into the in-service training of teachers, rather than large plenary sessions, has led to more cooperative and effective participation from educators.
