THE Department of Education said the revised K to 10 curriculum, which will focus on five foundational skills or competencies compared to the current seven, will begin its phased implementation starting next year.
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said the “Matatag K to 10” curriculum is the department’s answer to questions on the effectiveness of the current curriculum as she acknowledged the challenges facing the basic education sector.
Teachers’ groups such as the Alliance of Concerned Teachers had earlier questioned the curriculum, saying it was overloaded with too many lessons or subjects.
“The past years showed us the alarmingly poor performance of Filipino learners in national and international assessments. One of the issues discovered was that the curriculum was overloaded with too many lessons and subjects, requiring instructors to teach an excessive number of learning competencies with very limited time available for instruction,” Duterte said during the revised curriculum launch yesterday at the Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City.
“Both teachers and learners were overburdened with lessons and other school tasks and activities. The result was devastating for our learners. It compromised their mastery of fundamental skills such as reading and solving simple math problems. These issues, along with other existing factors and conditions contributed to our learning loss,” she added.
Duterte said these problems prompted the department under her predecessor, Leonor Briones, to begin the review of the curriculum and completed on her watch.
The Deped has tapped 117 specialists, 533 teachers, school heads and supervisors, 126 consultants, 205 external experts, 180 private schools and organizations, and seven international experts to conduct the review.
“Among the revisions in the K to 10 program include reducing the number of competencies. DepEd will give greater emphasis on the development of foundational skills such as literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills to our Kinder to Grade 3 learners,” she said, adding that values and character development will be further intensified in adherence to Republic Act 11476, or the Good Manners and Right Conduct and Values Education Act of 2002.
The current curriculum has seven competencies, namely, Mother Tongue, Filipino, English, Mathematics, Araling Panlipunan, MAPEH, and Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao.
Under the Matatag curriculum, there will be five competencies, namely, Language, Reading and Literacy, Mathematics, Makabansa, and GMRC.
DepEd Undersecretary and Spokesperson Michael Poa said the Mother Tongue subject has been removed in the revised K-10 curriculum, but not as a medium of instruction.
DepEd Bureau of Curriculum Development Director Jocelyn Andaya said around 70 percent of the competencies in the current curriculum had been taken out in the Matatag curriculum.
“There are competencies that are only nice to know but not a must to know that is why we came up with essential learning competencies,” Andaya said.
Asked why Science was not included in the revised curriculum, Andaya said it will still be taught starting in Grade 3.
“We did not do away with science. It is still in Grade 3 just like in the previous curriculum,” she said.
The revised curriculum will also equip learners with information, media, and technology skills, communication and innovation skills, and life and career skills
Duterte said the revised curriculum will also integrate peace competencies, highlighting the DepEd’s promotion of non-violent actions and the development of conflict resolution skills in learners.
Education Undersecretary Gina Gonong said the Matatag curriculum will have a phased implementation beginning in the school year 2024-2025 through the school year 2027-2028.
“We are doing pilot implementation. We are ready for its implementation for the next school year,” Gonong said.
“We will study the challenges, the gaps so that we can address them and our teachers will also be ready to teach the revised curriculum when we finally roll it out in the school year 2024-2025,” she added.
In the meantime, she said learners in the current school year, or 2023-2024 will still have to study under the old curriculum.
