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MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) will revise the K-12 curriculum, which was found to be “congested,” Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said Monday as she presented the Basic Education Report 2023
Duterte said that DepEd’s ongoing review of the K-12 curriculum revealed that its curriculum content is “congested” and some prerequisites of “identified learning competencies are missing or misplaced.”
She added that a “significant number of learning competencies catered to high cognitive demands.”
With the revision of the curriculum, the DepEd aims to produce more job-ready and responsible graduates, Duterte said. “We will make the curriculum relevant to produce competent, job-ready, active, and responsible citizens.”
“We will revise the K to 12 curriculum to make them more responsive to our aspiration as a nation, to develop lifelong learners who are imbued with 21st-century skills, discipline, and patriotism,” she added.
Among the revisions will be to reduce the number of learning areas in kindergarten to third grade from seven areas to five. These learning areas will focus on foundational skills in literacy and numeracy in the early grades, particularly among disadvantaged students.
She said DepEd would strengthen its literacy and numeracy program and revitalize reading, science and technology, and math programs.
It also aims to improve English language proficiency “within the context of a multilingual nation.”
“We will review the implementation of the mother tongue-based multilingual education policy, guided by the basic principle that, among others, learners learn when taught in a language that they understand,” the DepEd chief said.
Duterte said that DepEd’s agenda would include the following:
- taking steps to accelerate the delivery of basic education facilities and services
- taking good care of learners by promoting learner well-being, inclusive education, and a positive learning environment
- giving support to teachers to teach better.