MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) will launch the revised K-10 curriculum in August, according to Education Undersecretary Michael Poa.
During the post-State of the Nation Address discussion of Cabinet members on Wednesday, Poa said the department will introduce the recalibrated curriculum in mid-August.
“The review of the K-10 [curriculum] came first, but the reviews of the senior high school curriculum—Grades 11 and 12—are underway. We already have a national task force doing that. We hope to complete that within a year’s time,” Poa said.
Also, the education official reiterated that the DepEd is undertaking a two-tracked approach to solve the issue of classroom shortage.
One track, he said, is building more classrooms in partnership with the Department of Public Works and Highways to address the shortage of more than 165,000 classrooms nationwide. However, under the 2023 General Appropriations Act, the agency was allocated P15.6 billion for classroom construction, equivalent to only 6,421 new classrooms. Hence, the other approach that DepEd is exploring, according to Poa, is the institutionalization of blended learning, or the use of technology and alternative learning modes.
“We want to tap into technology to really help with congestion in our schools. We believe that by institutionalizing blended learning, this is the more effective way to quickly decongest our schools, not only by shifting schedules,” Poa said.
Aside from curriculum reforms and the construction of classrooms, the department is also ramping up its efforts to ensure that the learners are properly nourished through the school-based feeding program.
“As of now, our school-based feeding program only covers 120 [feeding] days and we are looking to expand this to try and see if we could have it for the entire school year,” Poa said. “That’s very important because it hits two birds with one stone. Aside from giving proper nutrition to our learners, it also encourages our learners to stay in school, so dropout rates are also reduced,” he added.
For the welfare of the teachers, Poa said the department will be issuing interim guidelines on reducing the administrative duties of teachers “in a few weeks’ time.”
“We will be giving the [administrative tasks] to nonteaching personnel, that’s why we’re also very aggressive in hiring nonteaching personnel in DepEd,” he said.