SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday said the Department of Education (DepEd) should put the spotlight again on Reading and Mathematics or Arithmetic as it exerts efforts to address the learning gap in basic education, especially among students who are still in adjustment period following two years online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gatchalian, who is the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Education, said there is a need for the DepEd to return to the basics to ensure that students are equipped with the right learning skills before they enter senior high school.
This as he noted that many students who are aged 10 years still have difficulty reading.
“Ang nakikita ko dito, dapat mag concentrate muna tayo sa Reading and Math dahil lumalabas almost 90 percent ng ating 10-year-olds hindi marunong magbasa (From what I’ve seen here, we should focus first on Reading Math since almost 90 percent of our 10-year-olds do not know how to read),” Gatchalian told radio DZBB Sunday.
“Kung hindi ka marunong magbasa, hindi ka rin marunong magbilang. So bumalik muna tayo sa basics. Turuan natin silang magbasa. Turuan natin silang magbilang para pagpasok nila ng senior high school ay mas madali na sa kanila (If you don’t know how to read, chances are you also don’t know how to count.So we should go back to the basics. Teach them how to read, teach them how to count so that it would be easy for them to enter senior high school),” he added.
Earlier, DepEd spokesperson Michael Tan Poa said the department intend to focus on the basics of learning as it seeks to address the learning gaps among school children, exacerbated by the pandemic.
Poa said DepEd has been assessing the learning competencies of schoolchildren enrolled in kindergarten to Grade 10 and has noted deficiencies in reading competencies among Grade 1 students.
Gatchalian also called on DepEd to do away with some competencies in the curriculum, pointing out that teachers also have to cope with too many competencies to teach.
“Hindi lang estudyante, pati teacher hindi maka-concentrate so kung pwede nating bawasan ang tinatawag na competencies, ito ay ang mga pinag-aaralan ng bata, mas maganda (Both students and teachers cannot concentrate on the basics of earning because of too many competencies being taught in school. We should lessen these competencies,” he said.
Gatchalian also cited the ongoing review by DepEd of the K to 12 curriculum as another important move to upgrade the quality of basic education and address the skills mismatch among K to 12 graduates.
