REVISED CURRICULUM | A teacher starts the pilot implementation of the Matatag K-10 program at the Tinajeros National High School in Malabon City. (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — As the Department of Education (DepEd) kicked off the pilot test of the revised K-10 curriculum in 35 schools on Monday, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), a progressive teachers’ group, called on the agency to stop its “premature” and “experimental” implementation of the program that would only treat the children as “guinea pigs.”
“Just like in the implementation of K-12 in 2012, it is disheartening that after more than a decade, the DepEd would tell the public that an implemented curriculum is problematic,” the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said in a statement.
According to the group, the “Matatag” curriculum was just a rebranding of the current Enhanced Basic Education Curriculum whose main goal was to follow the global demand for “cheap and docile laborers.”
No consultation
“The benchmarking of the 21st century skills development to produce graduates is aligned to the demands of foreign entities,” ACT said.
“This runs counter to our need to produce graduates that should be inclined to the constitutional mandate of education to establish, maintain and support a complete, adequate and integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and society,” it added.
The group also claimed that the revision of the curriculum did not undergo an “open, democratic, and genuine consultation with education stakeholders.”
ACT said that instead of hastily implementing the new curriculum, the DepEd should conduct an evidence-based nationwide learning assessment to gauge the extent of learning loss brought about by a “faulty” curriculum and exacerbated by the two-year school closure during the pandemic.
In a Viber message to reporters, Education Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas said all 35 pilot schools from the seven regions started the first day of implementing the Matatag curriculum.
On the sidelines of a memorandum signing with the Government Service Insurance System on Monday, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said the pilot test will seek to determine the challenges in the implementation of the new curriculum.
“So that by next year, in the phased implementation of the Matatag curriculum, there will just be a few adjustments to be made,” she said.