Give it a chance

Our education system has been in trouble for years and years and years. We all know that.

I don’t have enough space in this issue to repeat the bad diagnoses that have been discussed to tears by all kinds of experts and the sorry outcomes from the international snoops that like to compare the scholastic achievements of countries across the globe.

There are people who say we have to examine our past to see why we are in this mess, and only then can we begin to come up with meaningful reforms.

Really? Isn’t that what we’ve been doing all this time—looking back, passing blame, coming up with stop-gap solutions,  passing blame, devising more schemes, passing blame…?

Right now, there is a big-muscle effort that seeks to reform our education system—not just public education but the private sector as well. It is called the K to 12 Basic Education Reform Program (K to 12).

The way the President has been espousing K to 12, I am convinced he ran for President just to get the ball rolling. Since the program is the “centerpiece” of his agenda for change in the country, it is as good an excuse as any to raise the education budget. Which is very good news to me.

The department made a special point of  gaining public support for the program. It went everywhere and talked to everyone

—regional and district heads, councils and associations of private educational institutions and their member schools, education experts, suppliers and media. Program Coordinator Elvin Uy estimates that the DepEd has held 40 massive consultations across the country.

Perhaps in the beginning they forgot to talk to the frontliners—the teachers—because there were statements from the teachers’ associations and unions about the lack of consultation and, consequently, complaints that, among other things, it would be teachers again who would be doing the brunt of the work.

But teachers, bless them, are a forgiving lot. Instead of withholding support, they have rolled up their sleeves and marched off to the training sessions on how to teach the new curriculum.

If K to 12 is the tsunami that is expected to bring an upheaval of our education system for the better, Br. Armin A. Luistro and company are certainly in no state of panic. Instead they are going very cautiously about its implementation, phasing it in two grades at a time.

The DepEd is starting this school year  with Grade 1, the first rung in the elementary education ladder after Kindergarten (which is now mandatory and comes with its own  new curriculum) and Grade 7, the first rung in the high school education ladder that used to be called “First Year.”

Since DepEd launched K to 12 in October 2010, I have attended two consultations, joined two private fora, sat in on a steering committee meeting, pestered the secretary and other DepEd officials for interviews

—all because I want to understand this new framework.

Like our readers I have all kinds of questions relating to the K to 12. Such as:

How can we track the weak points of

K to 12 and make sure they are reported to DepEd?

How will we measure how well or bad schools are doing, and monitor which schools, districts and regions have improved most?

How can we change the current mindset from just teaching children a curriculum more efficiently to inspiring them to be lifelong learners?

How can we give teachers more leeway to be imaginative and creative in their classrooms?

How can we give principals more capacity to tailor the curriculum to the needs of their particular pupils?

In future issues, we will discuss the answers to these questions and many more.

Meantime, it is heartening to note that people who had asked “why” at the onset of K to 12 are now asking “how.” It seems they are giving it a chance. We all should.