Revival of values education in Kinder to Grade 3 gets House panel OK

MANILA, Philippines — The House committee on basic education and culture has approved a measure seeking to revive the teaching of values education under the K to 12 program.

The still unnumbered substitute bill or proposed “Good Manners and Right Conduct (GMRC) Act of 2019” seeks to institutionalize GMRC as a separate subject in Kinder to Grade 3 levels. The measure consolidated the bills filed by Speaker Alan Cayetano and four others.

In House Bill No. 609, Antipolo City 2nd District Rep. Resureccion Acop noted that the GMRC subject was created by the Department of Education in 1991 but a restructuring in 2002 integrated GMRC in all subject areas.

Under the consolidated bill, GMRC is defined as basic social values and etiquette.

In his explanatory note for HB 1, Cayetano stressed the pressing need to strengthen the common core values and inculcate universally acceptable moral standards.

“In the advent of social media and how it has evolved to be indispensable in our daily lives, it is important that Etiquette and Moral Uprightness is also introduced and taught for all of us to keep up with the modern era and act accordingly to a customary set of behaviour,” he added.

Similar proposals are being tackled at the committee level in the Senate.  /muf

READ: Senate hearing tackles values education bill