The Department of Education launched on Thursday the revised MATATAG Curriculum for Kindergarten to Grade 10, which aims to address learning losses and improve learners’ learning outcomes.
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said some subjects had been taken out of the current curriculum so that learners could focus on the most important learning areas and fundamental skills.
“One of the issues discovered was that — the curriculum was overloaded with too many lessons or subjects,” Duterte said in her speech during the launch of the MATATAG K–10 Curriculum at Sofitel Manila in Pasay City.
Duterte said the old curriculum required teachers to teach an excessive number of learning competencies with very limited time available for instruction.
“Both teachers and learners were overburdened with lessons and other school tasks and activities,” she said. “The result was devastating for our learners. It compromised their mastery of fundamental skills such as reading and solving simple math problems.”
She said the revisions in the K–10 program include reducing the number of competencies, noting that early-grade learners should focus on reading and mathematics.
“DepEd will place greater emphasis on the development of foundational skills such as literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills to our Kinder to Grade 3 learners,” she said.
GMRC
Duterte also emphasized the importance of teaching students about values, adding her administration will strengthen the teaching of good manners and right conduct.
“The formation of our learners’ values and the development of their characters will be intensified — in adherence to Republic 11476, or the GMRC and Values Education Act of 2020,” she said.
Duterte also said that the new K–10 curriculum will integrate peace competencies, highlighting the promotion of non-violent actions and the development of conflict-resolution skills in learners.
“After all, there is security, there is peace. This curriculum will be integral to DepEd’s MATATAG Agenda, unveiled in January this year,” she said.
The DepEd chief also called on teachers and all school officials across the country to ensure the efficient and effective implementation of the new K–10 curriculum.
“Let the Matatag Curriculum become a testament to our faith, love, hard work, and hope for our children’s future,” she said.
Director Jocelyn Andaya of the agency’s Bureau of Curriculum Development said that 70 percent of the current K–10 curriculum has been removed.
Repetitious
“Seventy percent of the competencies in the current curriculum have been taken out of the new curriculum simply because there are competencies that repeat and there are competencies that are only nice to know but not a must to know. That’s why we came up with essential learning competencies,” Andaya said during the press conference.
Undersecretary for Curriculum and Teaching Gina Gonong said the new K–10 curriculum has been divided into key stages: Stage 1 for Grades 1 to 3, key stage 2 for Grades 2 to 6, and key stage 3 for Grades 7 to 10.
“We have divided the curriculum into key stages so that at the end of each key stage we know that all those who underwent Kindergarten, Grades 1 to 3 are able to attain the standards, which means that the students understand and know what to do with what they know and they are able to do this in other ways,” she explained.
Gonong also clarified that Mother Tongue has been removed as a subject but will retain as the medium of instruction.
“Basically, the Mother Tongue as a subject has caused some confusion among teachers in the field, especially Luzon area. They are just asking what are the difference between the Filipino subject and Mother Tongue. So, to avoid confusion, we removed it as a subject,” she explained.
Gonong said the pilot implementation of the curriculum will begin in the school year 2024-2025 for Grades 1–3 in some schools in Metro Manila.
“It’s going to be a piece of paper if you’re not able to implement it well. So, we are doing the pilot implementation. We are ready for implementation for the next school year,” she said.
“So, we will study now the challenges that we encounter to address the gaps. We are ready, the teachers are also ready to teach this when we finally roll it out in school year 2024-2025,” she added.
She added that they would still use the current curriculum for the upcoming school year. “We will start using it [the new curriculum] beginning the school year 2024-2025,” she added.
The current curriculum has seven competencies namely Mother Tongue, Filipino, English, Mathematics, Araling Panlipunan, MAPEH, and Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao. However, under the new curriculum, there will only be five competencies, namely Language, Reading and Literacy, Mathematics, Makabansa, and GMRC.
DepEd has tapped 117 specialists, 533 teachers, school heads and supervisors, 126 consultants, 205 external experts, 180 private schools and organizations, and seven international experts to conduct the curriculum review.