ON K-12 CURRICULUM (CONTENT & TEACHING STRATEGIES)

The advent of the K-12 Basic Education Program of the Department of Education has significantly stirred the stagnant waters of our silent pond. The public’s opinion has expressed both positive and negative feedbacks regarding the new curriculum. Scholarly people in the Deped have prepared so much for this program. The government has spent so much for this curricular innovation. Funds for the dissemination, implementation and evaluation are satisfactory. Seminars and trainings are all set. The Deped is determined and on the go for this K-12 Basic Education Curriculum.

On K-12 Implementation. As a teacher, I am happy for this new curriculum because it is learner-centered, it is decongested, it is a seamless curriculum, it is responsive to the needs of the community and is an enriched curriculum. With all of these characteristics, it will surely yield positive results. However, being part of the Deped organization, I am also nervous because I know that not all mentors are open-minded with the new basic education program. I am worried about the implementation process and its sustainability as a new program. I am also apprehensive of the constant evaluation and monitoring process to ensure that K-12 is well implemented.

On Curriculum Content. The K-12 Curriculum content follows a spiral progression, where topics/lessons for every grade are decongested and is performance-based in order to ensure mastery. For grades 11-12, wherein it provides choices like academic specializations, technical vocational and sports and arts specializations, the students who will be graduates after 12 years will become globally competitive! With this, I feel excited for them. However, I am saddened by the fact that there are really people who are resistant to change. Parents feel an additional burden for their children to add two more years in school but are not open to the possibility that this curricular innovation is an avenue for their children to employ themselves after graduation.

On Teaching Strategies. There are possible loopholes of the K-12 program. To name one, is the teaching strategy. Mentors may feel burnout with the advent of this K-12 BEC and have the tendency to do away with the prescribed teaching methods that would guarantee an enduring understanding of the topics/lessons. It would be an overreaction on my part to think that various teaching strategies may not be employed but rather the die-hard chalk-and-talk strategy may be most popular. Disgusting as it may seem, though not all teachers are very hard to please, a considerable number of teaching force may shrug their shoulders on the strategies for teaching embedded in the learning package and curriculum guide, for it is an overwhelming reality based on experience. I may sound subjective but in a sense, I would consider it as true. Based on experience, I know that oftentimes, teachers like me only make use of the different strategies in the teaching-learning process to different kinds of students if there would be monitoring team or evaluators visit the school. On the other side, the teaching strategies will help or assist the teachers as implementers to carry out the plans set by the K-12 curricular innovation. I must be an advocate to this change.  Whatever will happen, I would like to think that “All great changes are preceded by chaos.”