CEBU CITY, Philippines—Despite the opposition from various sectors, the Department of Education (DepEd) will soon implement an enhanced 12-year basic education program, which consists of seven years in the elementary level and five years in the secondary level, according to Education Secretary Br. Armin Luistro.
The new program would roll out a simplified and a competency-driven curriculum that would produce professionally competent and skilled high school graduates, Luistro said on Wednesday.
“Our plan is not just to add years to the current education cycle but to conduct an actual review of the whole curriculum and to come up with a more simplified new basic education program focused on enhancing the competencies of our high school graduates,” he said at the general membership meeting and awards night of the Cebu-based organization, Coalition for Better Education, held at the Cebu City Sports Club.
About 100 educators and quality education advocates applauded the department’s plans.
Luistro explained that irrelevant subjects would be taken out of the curriculum while new subjects would be incorporated to develop the technical and vocational skills of the students.
The DepEd would also coordinate with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to determine which technical and vocational skills were in demand.
“In other countries, where a 12-year education cycle is being followed, a high school diploma is already a ticket to finding respectable employment. If we do the same, college education will become more affordable to many of our high school graduates,” Luistro said.
Crafting the 12-year basic education program would address issues like sex education implementation as well as information technology education.
“I don’t want a chopsuey kind of curriculum. Everything has to be reviewed and integrated,” he said.
Luistro also bared plans of integrating foreign language education like Spanish to give students the edge to work in non-English speaking countries.
Perennial problems
He said the DepEd was not blind to the perennial problems of the growing number of student dropouts, backlogs, textbooks and classrooms and they would try to resolve these issues in two years’ time.
He also said the DepEd would address the problem of classroom shortage. The previous administration had said the country lacked 40,000 classrooms but the figure had risen to 60,000.
“We still have to confirm these figures with our regional offices so we can allocate the proper budget,” Luistro said.
The DepEd also increased the budget for private school scholarship from P700,000 to P1 million. The program sends selected students to private schools with better facilities. –Regina Aguilar, Inquirer Visayas, Philippine Daily Inquirer
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