Revitalising the education curriculum in The Philippines

Ms Susan Cabahug-Unde Iligan City East High School Iligan City, The Philippines

The Philippine Basic Education Curriculum suffers from a low academic profile, both in elementary and secondary levels. Graduates are not even prepared to proceed in the next level program, despite the efforts of the implementing agency, the Department of Education.

The majority of teachers in both elementary and secondary levels still use traditional methods of teaching. This is an authoritative one-way information provision model that promotes the memorisation of concepts, limiting the students’ critical thinking and their ability to analyse real facts. These teaching-learning styles are no longer effective because appropriate technology is already available. Students are very responsive to the existing technologies but, if not guided properly in how to tap into this technology for its optimal use in learning, it will likely result in bad learning.

The education system in The Philippines is now moving towards the 21st century curriculum with the assistance of the sponsoring agencies such as Microsoft Philippines, Partners in Learning, Philippine Business for Social Progress, World Links, Foundations for Indigenous Technology Education and Development Inc., and Smart Communications, among others. Top officials in the Department of Education as well as teachers in the field, across all learning areas, are now being intensively trained, with the aim of learning about how to tap into the new information and communication technologies. Our country needs to cater better for the needs of students and prepare them with the 21st century content and skills.

Redesigning the curriculum in The Philippines will not happen over night and the process of change cannot be copied directly from other developed countries, where the 21st century curriculum has proven to be effective. This is because the capability building of our country is set within the context of the economic problems we currently experience.

Teachers in the field play an important role in attaining 21st century outcomes for every student. Dedication to work, with a strong desire to do their best in all aspects, is a lifetime legacy that will benefit our country’s future generations.

Today’s graduates need to be critical thinkers, problem-solvers, effective communicators, ICT literates, great collaborators, values of work and life, team workers and good leaders who can enter into an increasingly globalised world, in which technology plays a vital role.

A participatory approach for curriculum change is called for. Change will therefore involve leading teachers in a respective field or discipline, ICT specialists, school administrators, local government units, non-government units, parents, student leaders, stakeholders and other benefactors. A collaborative approach can build a sustainable and efficient basic education curriculum that caters for the needs of the students and prepares them to face a highly competitive job market.

A sustainable instructional curriculum design can be attained only if all the involved personalities have joined hands to aim for the best. To efficiently monitor and assess learning outcomes as a formative assessment will often be conducted, so that the succeeding lessons will be soon mitigated, based on findings. Then, summative evaluation will be performed at the end of the academic year for a revision of the curriculum.

Since there is no single blueprint of an effective instructional curriculum design that ultimately provides the need of a particular group of students, a trial and error implementation of the plan, with close monitoring and evaluation, and diagnostic analysis based on findings, will create deep learning opportunities.

After the years of using my specialised curriculum, I developed full mastery of all its topics. I can also relate these topics to real life situations that might enhance students’ short-lived understanding of the concepts and their real life applications.

At present, the existing secondary curriculum is a structure-based design that is suited to traditional methods of teaching and learning. Despite the hindrances and limitations, Filipino teachers are on the move and will not to be left behind in this highly competitive global educational system.

The wishes and dreams of a classroom teacher are to facilitate deep learning in our students, to prepare them for the real world of life. My wish is for my 80 students to have easy access to ICT facilities, just as students in developed countries do. This equipment will help us conceptualise very abstract concept in science and its applications.

Through school principal empowerment, a classroom teacher under his/her jurisdiction can redesign an instructional curriculum that facilitates critical thinking and problem-solving, providing that the teacher has a strong background of integrating technology into classroom teaching.

To implement quality education in this country, we need the political will to implement transparency and good governance in the educational system; this will require an iron hand. The next step is to design and implement a participatory and sustainable Philippine basic education curriculum that is geared towards the 21st century. Finally, we need gradual revisions of the implemented curriculum to suit an ever-changing society.

A positive curriculum change towards the 21st century education requires close support, monitoring and the evaluation of its effectiveness in the field by an implementing agency. This is because classroom teachers, as facilitators of learning, are still in the process of learning about ICT and their use in learning. Unfortunately, poverty hinders the majority of public students from accessing ICT in their local area, and economic constraints of the Philippines slows the full implementation of the 21st century curriculum.

Since many non-government units and foundations are assisting the Philippine Government in implementing the 21st century curriculum, the Department of Education must be sincere enough to do its part in this endeavor. The newly ICT trained teachers must undergo close supervision from their technology coaches. The use of donated ICT peripherals must be optimised. School administrators must cooperate with the teachers and students, in terms of support, and be responsive to their needs.