MANILA, Philippines — The newly established ‘Matatag’ curriculum represents the heritage of the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to the Filipino children.
Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte announced the new academic drive during the activity of “Brigada Eskwela 2023” in Manila on Monday.
Matatag means stable in English.
Duterte described the new syllabus as one that addressed all the issues and concerns brought up by educational experts.
“Itong Matatag Curriculum, this is the legacy of the Marcos administration sa basic education natin sa ating bansa,” she said.
(Matatag Curriculum is the legacy of the Marcos administration in our basic education in our country.)
“Lahat po nung nakita na problema ng mga international and local education experts natin, in-address po namin dito sa bagong K-10 Program (Kinder to Grade 10),” she explained.
(All the problems seen by our international and local education experts, we addressed them here in the new K-10 Program.)
Duterte said the Department of Education had streamlined the number of learning competencies from 11,000 to 3,000.
Subjects were also lessened.
“Sa key stages, Grade One to Three, dati seven subjects tayo. Binaba natin sa five subjects with focus on Math and Reading,” she pointed out.
(In key stages, Grade One to Three, before it was seven subjects. We reduced it to five subjects with a focus on Math and Reading.)
“And then, ang Science natin, papasok ‘pag Grade Four,” she bared more details.
(And then, Science will be introduced in Grade Four.)
“Para na akong education expert ‘no?” she asked the audience, lightening up.
(I am like an education expert now, right?)
Marcos, who joined Duterte in the event, lauded the new curriculum.
“This is very significant because here, we are trying. Ang sinusubukan nating gawin ay ayusin ang curriculum para maging mas bagay sa pangangailangan ng mga batang Pilipino,” he said.
(This is very significant because here, we are trying. What we are attempting to do is to fix the curriculum so that it is more fitting to the needs of Filipino children.)
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