K-12 Education Reform in the Philippines

Education Act of 1982 mandates six or seven years of elementary education and four years of high school to provide students knowledge and develop their skills, attitude and values essential to personal development. Now the Aquino administration is embarking on a noble yet ambitious program that aims to extend the years of education. Kindergarten to 12 or K to 12. This education model involves kindergarten, six years of elementary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school. The education department says the last two years will equip students academic skills and competencies needed for finding meaningful employment. But at this time, Congress has yet to give its nod to K-12. Aside from the needed legislation, some teachers groups say... The government is not ready to implement K-12, citing the lack of training for teachers, the lack of school facilities, and even the lack of support among parents who struggle to send their children to school. Is K-12 the answer to the problems besetting the Philippine education system? Students complain of almost the chairs, teachers, and the needed resources. And despite the problems, the education department is undaunted and determined to pursue the K-12 program. Without a law, the proposal will not move. Still, the DepEd has begun taking steps to prepare for K-12. Is the DepEd on the right track? Will longer years in school make for better students? And can the government afford the K-12 program? Our question for you out there is K-12, the answer to problems besetting Philippine education. And with us, the Secretary of the Department of Education, Brother Armin Luistro. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Tina, for inviting us. I always love talking to educators. Okay, we will begin with that question. In the minds of a lot, you were able to begin the K-12. Well, it's a long journey. So when you say begin, that's really the early phases of it. And we started with kindergarten at the beginning of June last year. And we're starting with the curriculum for grade 1 and grade 7 this year. Yes. So how are you able to do that without an enabling law? Well, essentially, we're starting with the curriculum itself. I think part of the miscommunication, and maybe we are at fault with this one, is... The sound bite is that it's an additional two years. Yes, that's part of the K-12, but that's just one segment of what K-12 is all about. At the heart of it is really teacher training, and we're training 140,000 teachers this summer, even as we speak, and we're working on the curriculum. So you'll be very excited with the curriculum for grade one, for example, where we're actually bringing in the mother tongue-based multilingual education. And for grade 7, which is the new first year high school, we're actually bringing in all the items in the curriculum that will make science and math competitive worldwide. Okay, so you're talking of the curriculum development and the teacher training alone, and how are you able to do that for the incoming school year without the enabling law that will allow you the budget for it? Well, with great difficulty, but really... The law would really allow us to do the senior high school, which is the additional two years, but that will be in 2016. What we're doing now is really within the mandate of the department, which is all about changing the curriculum, making it more responsive to today's needs, and making sure that students are able to access all of these programs that the government provides in education. Should the law not be passed by Congress? or should it be railroaded by whatever reasons there could be? What happens to the efforts of the training for the grade 1 and the grade 7 starting this school year? Even if we do not add two years, we would still need to make sure that the young learners, for example, entering grade 1 in kinder, are able to understand the lessons and the concepts. via the mother tongue program. Even if we do not add two years, we would need to change our curriculum. science and math because we're doing very poorly in those. So the K-12 curriculum has many facets and we're working on all of those together including all of those decades-old problems with lack of teachers, classrooms, seats, toilets and textbooks. So it would not be a waste of effort. Definitely not. Even if the enabling law to pursue or to implement the K-12 is not at all past by the Congress for the life of the term of President Aquino, it would not matter. We would not have wasted anything. We would not have wasted anything because we would need to introduce innovation in education. We would need to recalibrate all of our programs and modules in order to respond to 21st century skills. So where did you get the money? That is... part of the mandate of the department now. For example, with respect to textbooks, we are currently developing modules for grade 1 and grade 7, and that is part of what the department should have been doing in past years. Those who run schools, for example, recognize that every three, four years, you need to change the curriculum anyway. So that's exactly what we're doing now, but we're not just focused on the next three, four years, and that's a difference with K-12. We're really looking at the long term and that's why we started with Kinder, you start with the most basic, grade 1 and grade 7. This, Tina, this will be a 6 year and actually for the full implementation, it will take a full 12 years. I won't be in the department anymore. So, but we're putting in the foundation so that this can continue. The enabling law will allow us the assurance that even beyond President Aquino's term. This will be part of the educational reform and it will be stable. So should it not be passed within President Aquino's term, you can still go on and make it and believe that it will happen even beyond? Tina, the hope that springs eternal tells me that it will be passed very soon. Okay, that's good. That's good. Okay, so how was the kindergarten part of it implemented and were there gaps and are you improving if there were some gaps? Well, this is an example also of... of what we need for the need for a law, for example. Kinder law was only signed by President Aquino until three months ago. But we opened Kinder, even without the enabling law, several years back. In fact, in June this year, last year, we had an enrollment of 1.7. Because it is necessary that we bring in five-year-olds into the preschool. so that they can adjust to grade one. But the law in this particular instance came de facto after we started already the kinder program. But we did not really get so much opposition with that. Before you pass a law, there are a lot of discussions, hearings. In fact, we announced the K-12 one year and a half ago, October 5, 2010. But that's because we knew that we needed to go around do a lot of consultations including doing our pencil pushing for the costs and you cannot do that in in just one year. So, part of this is really working on our various stakeholders and and when you get that kind of support hopefully that will also feed itself into our lawmakers so that they support the enabling law for K-12. How significant was, did you put into the inputs of the parents? Were they a group that resisted it mainly among the stakeholders? Well, there were two types of consultations. We did nationwide consultations in the 17 regions, and that included a big bulk of parents and students, as well as the various stakeholders in the community. The Congress itself had their own share of consultations. The trend was essentially the same. You present the educational reform package and everyone says, no, no, no, let's just build classrooms. But as you present the program and say, what's the main feature of the K-12 program, then parents begin to understand what it is all about. What is the selling point that made you say now, make you say now that the parents now accept it? Well, in all of our consultations, we ended with a commitment form and a kind of a poll. informal though with respect to how they feel about it and whether we'll be supportive of it in the In 17 regions, I think the average was around 77% of those who attended. A lot of the opposition, I think the continuing opposition that we may be getting, and I think it's getting smaller, is really with respect to those whom we did not have as much occasion to explain the totality of the program. And it's essentially the same. Why are you going into additional two years when you still have more classrooms to build, etc.? This will be more... for the parents but but we are building classrooms even as we work on the heart of the curriculum we will be hiring more teachers to reach the our shortage targets my good news is by June this year in a month's time I will be able to erase the upward two of the five shortages we identified every child in school public schools There will be a one-to-one ratio for all textbooks, for all the five or six major subjects they have from grade one to fourth year high school. All of our kinder students, 1.8 million strong enrolled in public schools, will have a 300-pager activity sheet, which they can write on, draw, or make airplanes. All of our shortages on chairs would have been addressed by June 4 of this year. Except maybe, well I'm hoping they'll all be there delivered up to the farthest multi-grade school. So the government is not just working on the curriculum. We're working on all of these other shortages, including classrooms. And we've rolled out the first batch for the public-private partnership for classroom construction. And that should be the first 10,000 or so classrooms, hopefully for the next year and a half. before June 2013. My target is that we'll be able to catch up with classroom shortage by the next school year, June 2013. Okay, your classroom shortage number now which is at 66,000. That was last year. We were able to build around 15,000 plus together with the private donors and foreign donors. We're at around 50,000. We have 30,000 in the budget for public-private partnership. over the next year and a half and then maybe another 15,000 in the regular school building program so that should add up to the remaining shortages. But this is also, these numbers that you give me now already put in the computation the the new entrance. Yes, yes. The good news is that in the 2010 survey, census the population growth is now at 1.9 percent. 1.9 percent instead of originally ten years ago it's around 2.36 percent why is that growth I think people are beginning to think and the parents are actually scaling down the number of children that 1.9 million translates to 1.7 new entrants a year for us now five years down the road and then what is the dropout rate well part of the part of the success of the department in bringing down the dropout rate will mean having to ensure that we have more classrooms now. Now part of what I need to do is actually creating other programs for those who could not go to school or too tired to go to school. We are not thinking only of building classrooms because in many of these situations for example like street children, those in prison, we need to create programs not the traditional type. Where classroom will not be the main definer of whether we can hold the class. And I'm happy, for example, to know that for the grade 7 curriculum, for the new first year high school, the department in partnership with FAPE, that's the private group, has developed a whole digitized... The Fund for Assistance to Private Education. In partnership with them, we've developed a module, all digitized. It's... It's ready for rollout by June. And this is more of the model for a blended learning. It's open high school. They don't have to come to school every day. And you just have sessions, contact sessions, with teachers during designated days of the week. So the department will have to do this and many more. We cannot be just too obsessed about the traditional formal classroom setting. So this new trend, that you are going to be introducing using as your base the what is the main consideration there that you know longer we'll be relying on the traditional methods the traditional methods of classroom based where teachers are and they'll be ordering chairs and we'll be getting textbooks are you going to introduce computers? that is part, that's why I want to remove from that list of five shortages as many as I could hopefully classrooms and teachers very soon because I think we need to introduce this consciousness that learning these days in the 21st century will require connectivity, will require computers and computer-aided instruction. But obviously we cannot address that gap within the next three years. My hope, the hope in my heart says we should. And who ever thought? That we would be able to have textbooks for all of the 20 million students in our schools. Part of it is really planning. Part of it is really ensuring that whatever limited resources the government has actually goes to the most essential needs. I'll give you an example, science laboratory equipment. What I'm working on now is with our science teachers so that we will be able to identify what is the most basic kit. that every single school classroom would need for grade one so that they will learn science grade two grade three in the past part of the problem is we have this list but it keeps expanding even before we're able to provide all the 45,000 schools we just catch up with with other stuff in the list and I said we can't keep doing that by June this year I said I want every single kinder teacher to have one kinder kit. That's one box with all of the big books, with the reading materials, with the manipulative toys, so that I want to make sure that every kinder classroom has the most basic resources for students to be engaged in learning. And they will have it. And you have the money for it. by June this year. Now, we will not have all the other types that you'll have in a private school. But, By identifying the most basic, you are not depriving them of that learning experience that is most essential to those competencies for kinder. So for science, we want to do the same thing. It doesn't have to be expensive all the time. Our science program in the K-12, as well as math, is a science and math that brings them into the science and math of everyday life. So I just came from UP, NISMED, that this is where we... train our trainers for the science curriculum and the first thing I asked them was okay we're teaching them living things what happens if you go to a high school where there's no microscope they said brother if there is a microscope they will learn the same content using a microscope but if there is none we have another alternative so that they can learn about cells and living things by another means so I think that that's how systematic we should be in terms of identifying the most essential and making sure that this is provided even in the farthest school okay let me just get the comments here brother some comments from our viewers from JT Tenorio it's not the length of schooling that matters but the quality we need better facilities and up training for our beloved teachers that's sweet from Elvis is that the family name Curriculum natin panahon pa ni Cory useless na. What the kids really need is transformative education that can adapt to the needs of the country. From Jess Antonoy, the Philippines is not yet ready for K-12. DepEd should resolve the existing issues first, which are lack of textbooks and training and space and classrooms, etc., etc., which you tell me you are addressing. Yes, and I... I agree 101% that it's not about adding two years. Because you can add years if you don't work on the quality. Everything I said about kinder, the spiral approach to science and math, that's about quality. So we're not just adding two years. In fact, even without the law, what we're doing is really looking at the heart of the curriculum and making sure that even the poorest public school will have the same type of learning. that you find in a private school. Okay. Is it a burden on the teachers now? We'll pause for a break. You can join this discussion on our question of the day. It's K212. to problems besetting Philippine education. Text us react space ANC space with your name, address and message. Then send to 2331 for Globe Touch Mobile buy-in and Sun subscribers and 231 for smart and talk and text subscribers. And send us your tweets as well at twitter.com slash ANC alerts and be a fan of Talk Back with Tina Palma on Facebook. Stay with us please. Back in Twitter and Facebook, if they think K-12 is the answer to Philippines'education woes, and here's what they had to say. X-E-M-C-K-E says, yes, it has additional subjects that not only improve learners'intellectual capacity, but also train them to become skilled individuals. Sanchez Alisa says, yes to K-12, but kailangan handaan gobyerno bago ipatupad, like ensuring we have well-paid teachers and enough... classrooms and supplies. JETU says it's not the number of years that matters but the quality of education that's vital in honing young minds. K-12 will only add another burden to poor families. Gregory Martos says we already have a good curriculum what we need are good classrooms and enough facilities so our teachers can effectively teach this curriculum and we also ask the men and women on the streets about this topic and here's what they have to say. No, because I think the Philippine government can use other means to find remedy for the educational woes of the Philippines, such as providing better teachers, better education, rather than adding more years and more problems for those who can't afford it. Actually, I think it won't be that much of a help. It probably will improve, but then I think what we should be concerned more of is the budget and the quality of education. I don't think it's enough. There are many broken schools, lack of facilities, lack of books, and lack of teachers. No, I don't think K-12 will be very beneficial to the education sector in our country. Because I think it's not the quantity of education that needs to be improved, it's the quality. Because even if you add two years to the education, if the teachers don't have money, if the students don't learn, what's the point? You just did something. You just get stuck. And the poor people are sad because they can't finish their studies. And you will have to add more years of education. I think no, because if you think about it, there are a lot of people who already find it difficult to finish studying with the system that we have now. But if they add more level, then I think that they'd find it harder, especially financially. to finish their studies. Still with us, Education Secretary Arminio Luistro. I gave you a question before we went on break. Is the teacher the center of all of these educational reforms? Whatever programs we are bringing into the K-12 curriculum, for example, mother tongue-based, all of these innovations in science, we have very good science programs. What we have not done is... we have pilot tested a lot of these. There are many documents that tell us what are the best practices. We have never institutionalized these. All of these have been developed, created, and been a product of the innovation of our public school teachers. Yes, with help from outside. What we're doing is we are not creating any new programs. We are actually... using the best practices that has tried and tested from our own schools and our own teachers so that developed in what in very many many years ago several years ago for example but still never institutionalized in all the 45,000 schools so the K to 12 program is a way of bringing together some of these pockets of success never heard of by outside of the public schools And what we've done is we've documented them, we're putting them and institutionalizing them as part of the whole thing. Example, brother. For example, the mother tongue. What do you say, mother tongue? Mother tongue. These are students in the early years who begin their education by not teaching them immediately English or Filipino, but starting with Pangasinan, Waray, Cebuano, Tagalog, etc. In these 200 or so schools where we have pilot tested them, all of our data tell us that they are able to understand concepts and the bridging, shifting into teaching them English and Filipino and then eventually moving into English as a medium of instruction by grade 4 has a very high success rate. Okay, you've tracked these people in the 200 schools? Yes. who were given the mother tongue in their first years of education, and how old are they now? I mean, in what grade are they now? Well, they should be in four, five, or six. Now, the good thing about this is the materials, in some instances, even the dictionaries or orthographies, were made by our own teachers. So, in other words, we know that in the new K-12 curriculum, these are things that teachers in public schools can't actually... implement and we have model schools where that is so we have model schools for science for example aside from the science high schools we have elementary science schools and some of these schools I can proudly say despite the limitations can be on the same level as the best private schools here in Manila now what we're saying is this is not something as though it's foreign It is something that has been developed within the department, and it is time for us to actually share this and institutionalize it. Our teachers, therefore, should be able to implement it with a little help. Okay. And what about the rest of them who do not form part of that pilot, or who were not contributors to the development of these various reforms? that you tell me now where we're actually being done in many places. They will find all of those best resources in the digitized modules for all the subject areas for grade one that's complete and for grade seven they're all digitized the good thing is the teacher guides as well as the student modules are all there this is made available our trainers are now doing the workshops during the month of April. By the month of May, they will be fielded to the various regions and we will be training, don't fall off your seat, 140,000 teachers in the new curriculum. But the easy part is the curriculum is written in such a way that it is user-friendly. It has all the necessary details. That will make it easier for the teacher to implement, adapt, and in fact contextualize it in my own setting. So I think that's the big difference. You have this module that is going to be used. For the training of these 140,000 teachers who will be the teacher in grade 1 and grade 7. And these are in four subject matters? Well, in all the subject areas. In all subject matters. And you're telling me that this is already digitized with a module that is user-friendly? Every subject matter topic will have a module. In some instances, even the pre-test and the post-test is there. I don't think we have ever done in the department something as complete and comprehensive as this one. The good thing with a digitized curriculum is it will not be perfect. I'm telling people this is the first time. Tell us what a digitized curriculum is. Well, what you find in a printed textbook is now also in a website. And you can download it. You can also edit it. That's the good news. In other words, if somebody tells me in the middle of the school year, Well, this part of the science module, number five, there are some errors there. We could do a technical panel review and change that within two days. And the teachers are the only ones who have access to that. Well, the good news is, upon request, because this is the first year we're rolling it out, even a parent who chooses to do home study for her kids can... actually has access to it. My philosophy is educational resources must be accessible to all. Okay, so are all of these 140,000 teachers with a computer? No, and that is why when they attend the training workshops, they'll have the printed teacher's manual and a sample of the textbook, not the textbook, the modules, compiled modules for that particular subject. because we obviously recognize that not all of them have connectivity. But in some of our schools, the curriculum itself can be enhanced because the digitized curriculum, computer-aided instruction, allows them to do other types of research aside from what they see in the curriculum itself. So you have the basic here, but for those who have access, you can have an enhancement by looking at other sources. So this present curriculum that is digitized, and will be given to the teachers when they train this April and May. Both are printed copies as well as digital. This was developed in what year and by who? Well, officially, we started, announced it in October 5, 2010. We had one and a half years to harass ourselves and those who were willing to help us. This was developed by a whole range of... Technical working groups from academe and our own teachers. The past one and a half years. 2010. 2010. So it's still fresh from the printing press. In terms of concepts and in terms of events, if this were history... This is very, very recent. The most recent... You'll be, in fact... some of the comments of the young people. My invitation is for them to please visit the public schools by June this year. Try to observe how the students and the teachers are engaged in learning especially in grade 1 and grade 7. Because K-12 is not about adding two years. We are not adding two years by June. But we are changing the way students are learning. We don't want teachers to be doing 40 minutes of lecture or 20 minutes of asking the students to copy from this Manila sheet the things that they have on their notebooks. We want students to be very engaged. And you will find, if you visit our grade 1 and grade 7 classes, that the curriculum, the quality that people are looking for, at least the beginning steps are there. Okay, so the teachers have not yet finished. seen the digitized version and have not been given yet the hard copy. Our program is for the month of May, for the whole month of May, there will be five day sessions for each of the subject areas that the teachers will be teaching for June. Five day sessions, whole day? Oh yeah. For this 140? 140. But these are really teachers, for example, in science. Taking that five days so that they will understand what I will teach for grade seven science. So it's very focused. And do you give them an assignment? After taking... Well, this is the first training program. We will be actually monitoring the implementation and depending on the subject area, there could be a mid-year type of assessment, review and retraining. So this is not one of those... So this is not like it's a test that they will take? No. And they need to pass whether they actually are fit? to implement this new curriculum? This one, it is innovative, but it is not that far from what they have been doing in the past years. An experienced teacher, for example, in science, if you give the teachers the right resources and the right time for them to understand that, we'll find it easy to adjust to a new curriculum. The difficulty is, I think in the past, we come up with curriculum that does not provide the necessary support to our teachers. And when we developed the curriculum for grade 1 and grade 7, we could have written just sketchy outlines of what are the topics and what are the competencies. But it took one year and a half for us to develop them. As I mentioned earlier, you would even find sample pre-tests post-tests. tests and in some instances expected answers of students because the we knew that teachers don't have as much access to many of these resources and and the teachers you did you pre test this already in a group or this is the first time you will actually use it for the 140 we don't have to pre test it no protesting because as I mentioned These have been implemented in pilot schools. Ah, okay. So that's our basis for adapting many of these. So what is the most exciting part when I, if I were a teacher, and I would be part of that 140,000, what are the new things, or what is the added value of my going through the five day? A grade one teacher, for example, who will be teaching, we don't have science as a subject for grade one, for example. But in the mother tongue classes, they will be teaching science concepts. But these are not science concepts that are up there. We teach them about living things. We teach them about temperature, body temperature, things that are closest to them. As our way of slowly bringing them into, you know, becoming more curious, inquisitive about all of these science things. Science is everywhere. We want students to enjoy every single lesson that they are taking. If you're teaching grade one and using the mother tongue method that you speak about, what about the others who do not speak the mother tongue? This is dialect. When you say mother tongue, this is dialect. This is not Filipino or Tagalog. This is the official, the 12 languages. This is Kapangpangan and kung ano-ano. Well, in these pilot test schools, there are urban centers and there are rural areas. In the rural areas, there's more homogeneity there. So this is heterogeneous. Yes. So what happened to the... In the urban centers, there were cases where our teachers adapted. And they divided the class into three or four groups. I imagine in some areas in the city, even public schools, there will be public schools who may have, as mother tongue, English. Yeah. I mean, you know, we start by profiling the students. Now, the exciting thing is, and maybe this will mean more work for teachers, but I think it will mean a deeper engagement with the individual students. The teachers will need to know where the students are coming from, what are their difficulties, and what we're emphasizing is, at the end of the day, the most important thing is not the textbook, not the module. The most important thing is know the learner. And if you know where the learner is, then you can engage him. There's not one way of learning. In a grade one classroom, in a grade one class, how many teachers would you have? Generally. the teachers in primary are generalists. So they stay with them. And that's psychological. Yes. Very great. Right, right. And many times that's advantageous because they built a relationship. Yes, I believe that. And the lessons there are not too specialized that you need to have a special training for different subjects. Okay, final stretch of talk back in a moment. Stay with us, please. We'll be reading more of your text messages to us. I'm reading your text messages. I salute this move of the DepEd to promote this K-12 program. Some people might say that the K-12 program should not be prioritized by the government because it may need to appropriate more budget for teachers, for books, for new classrooms. But the result is, well, it may take some time, but I think... I think that education must always be the top priority and this K-12 program should be pursued by those in authority, especially in the Deped. I don't think K-12 will help improve quality education in the Philippines. For me, it's a matter of quality. The year or the length of the time is not going to be measured. The students will learn. It's up to the teachers, the students, the teachers to learn how to inject the students the things they need to know. Besides, it's also expensive. It's expensive for the current time. Practical. It's not just for K-12. Besides, it's also expensive for the parents. It's also up to the children how fast they can learn in their studies. From Leo, the diversity of learners nowadays is different compared to the past. How can trainings improve the K-12 system? From Nico Narvacan, I think K-12 will take our education system to a higher level. All we have to do is to cooperate and be optimistic about it. From SP, Lucena, no to K-12, pang mayaman lang yan sa bagay pang baba ng populasyon magastos. Okay, what was I asking you? What is, in your experience as an educator in La Salle, as you were even growing up, what is that thing that is instilled in the mind of a student that makes him want to go and learn and really become someone as he grows up? Where is that magic? Only one X factor, and that's instilling fun in learning. Fun, F-U-N. It's more fun also in the school. It's more fun in the Philippines, it's more fun in the school. Why? In fact, Tina, I met with our regional directors and our teachers, our trainers, and I told them, June 4 is the first day of class, I want you all to be on school uniform, and anyone who's not smiling is out of uniform. I meant that, and I was very serious about it. School? The students become engaged when they are with a teacher who has fun teaching her students, his students, about lessons. Who's excited and dynamic about it. There's no question about that. In our kinder classrooms, I told our partners, please bring in toys, stuffed toys, all types of things that will make our kinder students enjoy going to school. You can have a teacher with... very minimal resources but when she is excited about what I will teach my students today that catches fire with the students themselves so you in the new curriculum that's what we're trying to emphasize that we don't have to be too bookish We don't have to look at the content only. We want teachers to be so excited that they can teach science pala in the kitchen or under a mango tree because there are a lot of living things there. We don't have to bring them to a laboratory. So these are the stuff that we want to embed in the K-12 curriculum. But the teacher here is at the center of the innovation and the reform. What do the parents know? have to do? Well, many things, Juan. The parents will have to provide the basic support system at home. So that when the students go to school, they do not bring with them the anxieties, the problems, and the worries that they are not able to resolve at home. Okay, but if the subject matter, especially with the new introduction of this new curriculum, is brought home by the child who has a parent who is not at all schooled. How does that affect the child's love for education? This is actually interesting because we're trying to develop a farm school. A type of a school where, because the learners are needed by their families during the seasons when you have harvest or planting. Not for child labor, really as an extra help. We recognize that absenteeism is one of the main causes for that. And I said, as modeled by some of our schools, we don't have to have a very rigid school calendar. It is possible to adapt the school calendar according to the seasons. In relation to the seasons for harvest and planting. Exactly. Now, is that time of the student... helping his farmer parent lost time? I said no. Only in so far as the teacher is unable to use that experience for the science lesson, the math lesson. So you're asking our teachers in the farm schools, well that is your laboratory. Bring in as an assignment, ask them to look at, count the number of palay seeds that sprouted and those that did not. That will be your statistical report. And as they do that, the dependents of the farmers will be forced to ask their parents who were not schooled, Tatay, bakit ganito po, hindi ito tumubo? They have wisdom that they can teach our students that they cannot find in a textbook. That is true because my friends now who grew up in farms and they're now educated, they go to the best school in Manila, they remember very distinctly. distinctly the learnings of their experience in the farm with their dad who was a farmer. The problem with the traditional curriculum is we've always stereotyped the farmer. Anybody who's unschooled has nothing to teach me. So we've never gone to them. One of my trips several weeks back is in Ifugao, in Sagada, for example. And what we're trying to do is to make sure that the indigenous wisdom is also passed on to the next generation. And the barrier that, well, this is not official knowledge, or it's not in the books. No, it's not. It should be transcended. We have to begin looking at the communities around us, even indigenous peoples, our elders, even unschooled ones, as also sources of knowledge for our students. You will not be held accountable for laying down the K-12. at these early stages and implementing it to any congressional... Well, I invite those who have questions about how exactly this will roll out. What we're doing now in terms of renewing, revising the curriculum is something the department should be doing at regular intervals. We are not adding yet those... two years which would need congressional a bill who is the author of the bill we have to what in Congress that's the speaker and and the chairman of education is congressman escudero in the Senate that's senator Angara's also the chairman of plus bus various colleagues so there are two versions of it we would need somehow to kind of harmonize them But in fact, I've attended at least one hearing in the House of Representatives on the K-12. We would have one in the Senate soon. So it is no longer the Education Act of 19... Well, that is still the basis until the new law supersedes that. So, last words, brother. What do you see in the first two years of the implementation of the results of the training that you will provide? A lot of hard work. Teachers will be ready to actually go through summer trainings regularly. We should be doing this every summer. And not only for those who will be doing the grade 2 and grade 8, but also for the other year levels. So there is no opportunity for you to review performances of teachers and how they are actually learning from this new training? We will be doing a monitoring of the grade 1 and grade 7, a more focused type of monitoring, because that's the first year rollout. In fact, there will be like a... feedback mechanism whereby teachers using the curriculum can immediately send their comments as well as suggested revisions to our committee so that we could already include that in the next year's rollout. So this will be a continuing development for the curriculum itself, even as we develop the upper years for the other subsequent years. Okay, when will the textbooks be ready? It is. now being they should now be in the process of being delivered I told them you start with the farthest school we've always started with the nearest well I said no change that the the poorest and the farthest school first and we just cascade that to the urban centers our target is by June for the students come to school the teachers are all smiling and one get their first one yes every child will have the full set that's right that's a start As a start. Thank you very much, brother, for joining us. Thank you, Tia. Thank you for your time. I hope we were able to answer some of the nagging questions of our viewers here. Thank you very much to Brother Luistro from the Department of Education. That's all the time we have. Talk to us again next week on Talk Back.

Aside from the needed legislation, some teachers groups say... The government is not ready to implement K-12, citing the lack of training for teachers, the lack of school facilities, and even the lack of support among parents who struggle to send their children to school. Is K-12 the answer to the problems besetting the Philippine education system?

Students complain of almost the chairs, teachers, and the needed resources. And despite the problems, the education department is undaunted and determined to pursue the K-12 program. Without a law, the proposal will not move. Still, the DepEd has begun taking steps to prepare for K-12.

Is the DepEd on the right track? Will longer years in school make for better students? And can the government afford the K-12 program? Our question for you out there is K-12, the answer to problems besetting Philippine education. And with us, the Secretary of the Department of Education, Brother Armin Luistro.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Tina, for inviting us. I always love talking to educators. Okay, we will begin with that question.

In the minds of a lot, you were able to begin the K-12. Well, it's a long journey. So when you say begin, that's really the early phases of it.

And we started with kindergarten at the beginning of June last year. And we're starting with the curriculum for grade 1 and grade 7 this year. Yes. So how are you able to do that without an enabling law? Well, essentially, we're starting with the curriculum itself.

I think part of the miscommunication, and maybe we are at fault with this one, is... The sound bite is that it's an additional two years. Yes, that's part of the K-12, but that's just one segment of what K-12 is all about. At the heart of it is really teacher training, and we're training 140,000 teachers this summer, even as we speak, and we're working on the curriculum. So you'll be very excited with the curriculum for grade one, for example, where we're actually bringing in the mother tongue-based multilingual education.

And for grade 7, which is the new first year high school, we're actually bringing in all the items in the curriculum that will make science and math competitive worldwide. Okay, so you're talking of the curriculum development and the teacher training alone, and how are you able to do that for the incoming school year without the enabling law that will allow you the budget for it? Well, with great difficulty, but really...

The law would really allow us to do the senior high school, which is the additional two years, but that will be in 2016. What we're doing now is really within the mandate of the department, which is all about changing the curriculum, making it more responsive to today's needs, and making sure that students are able to access all of these programs that the government provides in education. Should the law not be passed by Congress? or should it be railroaded by whatever reasons there could be?

What happens to the efforts of the training for the grade 1 and the grade 7 starting this school year? Even if we do not add two years, we would still need to make sure that the young learners, for example, entering grade 1 in kinder, are able to understand the lessons and the concepts. via the mother tongue program.

Even if we do not add two years, we would need to change our curriculum. science and math because we're doing very poorly in those. So the K-12 curriculum has many facets and we're working on all of those together including all of those decades-old problems with lack of teachers, classrooms, seats, toilets and textbooks.

So it would not be a waste of effort. Definitely not. Even if the enabling law to pursue or to implement the K-12 is not at all past by the Congress for the life of the term of President Aquino, it would not matter.

We would not have wasted anything. We would not have wasted anything because we would need to introduce innovation in education. We would need to recalibrate all of our programs and modules in order to respond to 21st century skills.

So where did you get the money? That is... part of the mandate of the department now.

For example, with respect to textbooks, we are currently developing modules for grade 1 and grade 7, and that is part of what the department should have been doing in past years. Those who run schools, for example, recognize that every three, four years, you need to change the curriculum anyway. So that's exactly what we're doing now, but we're not just focused on the next three, four years, and that's a difference with K-12.

We're really looking at the long term and that's why we started with Kinder, you start with the most basic, grade 1 and grade 7. This, Tina, this will be a 6 year and actually for the full implementation, it will take a full 12 years. I won't be in the department anymore. So, but we're putting in the foundation so that this can continue. The enabling law will allow us the assurance that even beyond President Aquino's term. This will be part of the educational reform and it will be stable.

So should it not be passed within President Aquino's term, you can still go on and make it and believe that it will happen even beyond? Tina, the hope that springs eternal tells me that it will be passed very soon. Okay, that's good. That's good.

Okay, so how was the kindergarten part of it implemented and were there gaps and are you improving if there were some gaps? Well, this is an example also of... of what we need for the need for a law, for example. Kinder law was only signed by President Aquino until three months ago. But we opened Kinder, even without the enabling law, several years back.

In fact, in June this year, last year, we had an enrollment of 1.7. Because it is necessary that we bring in five-year-olds into the preschool. so that they can adjust to grade one. But the law in this particular instance came de facto after we started already the kinder program.

But we did not really get so much opposition with that. Before you pass a law, there are a lot of discussions, hearings. In fact, we announced the K-12 one year and a half ago, October 5, 2010. But that's because we knew that we needed to go around do a lot of consultations including doing our pencil pushing for the costs and you cannot do that in in just one year.

So, part of this is really working on our various stakeholders and and when you get that kind of support hopefully that will also feed itself into our lawmakers so that they support the enabling law for K-12. How significant was, did you put into the inputs of the parents? Were they a group that resisted it mainly among the stakeholders?

Well, there were two types of consultations. We did nationwide consultations in the 17 regions, and that included a big bulk of parents and students, as well as the various stakeholders in the community. The Congress itself had their own share of consultations. The trend was essentially the same. You present the educational reform package and everyone says, no, no, no, let's just build classrooms.

But as you present the program and say, what's the main feature of the K-12 program, then parents begin to understand what it is all about. What is the selling point that made you say now, make you say now that the parents now accept it? Well, in all of our consultations, we ended with a commitment form and a kind of a poll.

informal though with respect to how they feel about it and whether we'll be supportive of it in the In 17 regions, I think the average was around 77% of those who attended. A lot of the opposition, I think the continuing opposition that we may be getting, and I think it's getting smaller, is really with respect to those whom we did not have as much occasion to explain the totality of the program. And it's essentially the same. Why are you going into additional two years when you still have more classrooms to build, etc.?

This will be more... for the parents but but we are building classrooms even as we work on the heart of the curriculum we will be hiring more teachers to reach the our shortage targets my good news is by June this year in a month's time I will be able to erase the upward two of the five shortages we identified every child in school public schools There will be a one-to-one ratio for all textbooks, for all the five or six major subjects they have from grade one to fourth year high school. All of our kinder students, 1.8 million strong enrolled in public schools, will have a 300-pager activity sheet, which they can write on, draw, or make airplanes. All of our shortages on chairs would have been addressed by June 4 of this year.

Except maybe, well I'm hoping they'll all be there delivered up to the farthest multi-grade school. So the government is not just working on the curriculum. We're working on all of these other shortages, including classrooms.

And we've rolled out the first batch for the public-private partnership for classroom construction. And that should be the first 10,000 or so classrooms, hopefully for the next year and a half. before June 2013. My target is that we'll be able to catch up with classroom shortage by the next school year, June 2013. Okay, your classroom shortage number now which is at 66,000.

That was last year. We were able to build around 15,000 plus together with the private donors and foreign donors. We're at around 50,000. We have 30,000 in the budget for public-private partnership. over the next year and a half and then maybe another 15,000 in the regular school building program so that should add up to the remaining shortages.

But this is also, these numbers that you give me now already put in the computation the the new entrance. Yes, yes. The good news is that in the 2010 survey, census the population growth is now at 1.9 percent.

1.9 percent instead of originally ten years ago it's around 2.36 percent why is that growth I think people are beginning to think and the parents are actually scaling down the number of children that 1.9 million translates to 1.7 new entrants a year for us now five years down the road and then what is the dropout rate well part of the part of the success of the department in bringing down the dropout rate will mean having to ensure that we have more classrooms now. Now part of what I need to do is actually creating other programs for those who could not go to school or too tired to go to school. We are not thinking only of building classrooms because in many of these situations for example like street children, those in prison, we need to create programs not the traditional type.

Where classroom will not be the main definer of whether we can hold the class. And I'm happy, for example, to know that for the grade 7 curriculum, for the new first year high school, the department in partnership with FAPE, that's the private group, has developed a whole digitized... The Fund for Assistance to Private Education. In partnership with them, we've developed a module, all digitized. It's...

It's ready for rollout by June. And this is more of the model for a blended learning. It's open high school.

They don't have to come to school every day. And you just have sessions, contact sessions, with teachers during designated days of the week. So the department will have to do this and many more.

We cannot be just too obsessed about the traditional formal classroom setting. So this new trend, that you are going to be introducing using as your base the what is the main consideration there that you know longer we'll be relying on the traditional methods the traditional methods of classroom based where teachers are and they'll be ordering chairs and we'll be getting textbooks are you going to introduce computers? that is part, that's why I want to remove from that list of five shortages as many as I could hopefully classrooms and teachers very soon because I think we need to introduce this consciousness that learning these days in the 21st century will require connectivity, will require computers and computer-aided instruction.

But obviously we cannot address that gap within the next three years. My hope, the hope in my heart says we should. And who ever thought?

That we would be able to have textbooks for all of the 20 million students in our schools. Part of it is really planning. Part of it is really ensuring that whatever limited resources the government has actually goes to the most essential needs.

I'll give you an example, science laboratory equipment. What I'm working on now is with our science teachers so that we will be able to identify what is the most basic kit. that every single school classroom would need for grade one so that they will learn science grade two grade three in the past part of the problem is we have this list but it keeps expanding even before we're able to provide all the 45,000 schools we just catch up with with other stuff in the list and I said we can't keep doing that by June this year I said I want every single kinder teacher to have one kinder kit. That's one box with all of the big books, with the reading materials, with the manipulative toys, so that I want to make sure that every kinder classroom has the most basic resources for students to be engaged in learning. And they will have it.

And you have the money for it. by June this year. Now, we will not have all the other types that you'll have in a private school.

But, By identifying the most basic, you are not depriving them of that learning experience that is most essential to those competencies for kinder. So for science, we want to do the same thing. It doesn't have to be expensive all the time.

Our science program in the K-12, as well as math, is a science and math that brings them into the science and math of everyday life. So I just came from UP, NISMED, that this is where we... train our trainers for the science curriculum and the first thing I asked them was okay we're teaching them living things what happens if you go to a high school where there's no microscope they said brother if there is a microscope they will learn the same content using a microscope but if there is none we have another alternative so that they can learn about cells and living things by another means so I think that that's how systematic we should be in terms of identifying the most essential and making sure that this is provided even in the farthest school okay let me just get the comments here brother some comments from our viewers from JT Tenorio it's not the length of schooling that matters but the quality we need better facilities and up training for our beloved teachers that's sweet from Elvis is that the family name Curriculum natin panahon pa ni Cory useless na.

What the kids really need is transformative education that can adapt to the needs of the country. From Jess Antonoy, the Philippines is not yet ready for K-12. DepEd should resolve the existing issues first, which are lack of textbooks and training and space and classrooms, etc., etc., which you tell me you are addressing. Yes, and I...

I agree 101% that it's not about adding two years. Because you can add years if you don't work on the quality. Everything I said about kinder, the spiral approach to science and math, that's about quality. So we're not just adding two years. In fact, even without the law, what we're doing is really looking at the heart of the curriculum and making sure that even the poorest public school will have the same type of learning.

that you find in a private school. Okay. Is it a burden on the teachers now?

We'll pause for a break. You can join this discussion on our question of the day. It's K212. to problems besetting Philippine education. Text us react space ANC space with your name, address and message.

Then send to 2331 for Globe Touch Mobile buy-in and Sun subscribers and 231 for smart and talk and text subscribers. And send us your tweets as well at twitter.com slash ANC alerts and be a fan of Talk Back with Tina Palma on Facebook. Stay with us please. Back in Twitter and Facebook, if they think K-12 is the answer to Philippines'education woes, and here's what they had to say.

X-E-M-C-K-E says, yes, it has additional subjects that not only improve learners'intellectual capacity, but also train them to become skilled individuals. Sanchez Alisa says, yes to K-12, but kailangan handaan gobyerno bago ipatupad, like ensuring we have well-paid teachers and enough... classrooms and supplies.

JETU says it's not the number of years that matters but the quality of education that's vital in honing young minds. K-12 will only add another burden to poor families. Gregory Martos says we already have a good curriculum what we need are good classrooms and enough facilities so our teachers can effectively teach this curriculum and we also ask the men and women on the streets about this topic and here's what they have to say.

No, because I think the Philippine government can use other means to find remedy for the educational woes of the Philippines, such as providing better teachers, better education, rather than adding more years and more problems for those who can't afford it. Actually, I think it won't be that much of a help. It probably will improve, but then I think what we should be concerned more of is the budget and the quality of education. I don't think it's enough.

There are many broken schools, lack of facilities, lack of books, and lack of teachers. No, I don't think K-12 will be very beneficial to the education sector in our country. Because I think it's not the quantity of education that needs to be improved, it's the quality.

Because even if you add two years to the education, if the teachers don't have money, if the students don't learn, what's the point? You just did something. You just get stuck. And the poor people are sad because they can't finish their studies. And you will have to add more years of education.

I think no, because if you think about it, there are a lot of people who already find it difficult to finish studying with the system that we have now. But if they add more level, then I think that they'd find it harder, especially financially. to finish their studies. Still with us, Education Secretary Arminio Luistro.

I gave you a question before we went on break. Is the teacher the center of all of these educational reforms? Whatever programs we are bringing into the K-12 curriculum, for example, mother tongue-based, all of these innovations in science, we have very good science programs.

What we have not done is... we have pilot tested a lot of these. There are many documents that tell us what are the best practices. We have never institutionalized these.

All of these have been developed, created, and been a product of the innovation of our public school teachers. Yes, with help from outside. What we're doing is we are not creating any new programs.

We are actually... using the best practices that has tried and tested from our own schools and our own teachers so that developed in what in very many many years ago several years ago for example but still never institutionalized in all the 45,000 schools so the K to 12 program is a way of bringing together some of these pockets of success never heard of by outside of the public schools And what we've done is we've documented them, we're putting them and institutionalizing them as part of the whole thing. Example, brother.

For example, the mother tongue. What do you say, mother tongue? Mother tongue. These are students in the early years who begin their education by not teaching them immediately English or Filipino, but starting with Pangasinan, Waray, Cebuano, Tagalog, etc. In these 200 or so schools where we have pilot tested them, all of our data tell us that they are able to understand concepts and the bridging, shifting into teaching them English and Filipino and then eventually moving into English as a medium of instruction by grade 4 has a very high success rate.

Okay, you've tracked these people in the 200 schools? Yes. who were given the mother tongue in their first years of education, and how old are they now?

I mean, in what grade are they now? Well, they should be in four, five, or six. Now, the good thing about this is the materials, in some instances, even the dictionaries or orthographies, were made by our own teachers. So, in other words, we know that in the new K-12 curriculum, these are things that teachers in public schools can't actually... implement and we have model schools where that is so we have model schools for science for example aside from the science high schools we have elementary science schools and some of these schools I can proudly say despite the limitations can be on the same level as the best private schools here in Manila now what we're saying is this is not something as though it's foreign It is something that has been developed within the department, and it is time for us to actually share this and institutionalize it.

Our teachers, therefore, should be able to implement it with a little help. Okay. And what about the rest of them who do not form part of that pilot, or who were not contributors to the development of these various reforms?

that you tell me now where we're actually being done in many places. They will find all of those best resources in the digitized modules for all the subject areas for grade one that's complete and for grade seven they're all digitized the good thing is the teacher guides as well as the student modules are all there this is made available our trainers are now doing the workshops during the month of April. By the month of May, they will be fielded to the various regions and we will be training, don't fall off your seat, 140,000 teachers in the new curriculum. But the easy part is the curriculum is written in such a way that it is user-friendly. It has all the necessary details.

That will make it easier for the teacher to implement, adapt, and in fact contextualize it in my own setting. So I think that's the big difference. You have this module that is going to be used.

For the training of these 140,000 teachers who will be the teacher in grade 1 and grade 7. And these are in four subject matters? Well, in all the subject areas. In all subject matters.

And you're telling me that this is already digitized with a module that is user-friendly? Every subject matter topic will have a module. In some instances, even the pre-test and the post-test is there.

I don't think we have ever done in the department something as complete and comprehensive as this one. The good thing with a digitized curriculum is it will not be perfect. I'm telling people this is the first time. Tell us what a digitized curriculum is. Well, what you find in a printed textbook is now also in a website.

And you can download it. You can also edit it. That's the good news.

In other words, if somebody tells me in the middle of the school year, Well, this part of the science module, number five, there are some errors there. We could do a technical panel review and change that within two days. And the teachers are the only ones who have access to that. Well, the good news is, upon request, because this is the first year we're rolling it out, even a parent who chooses to do home study for her kids can...

actually has access to it. My philosophy is educational resources must be accessible to all. Okay, so are all of these 140,000 teachers with a computer?

No, and that is why when they attend the training workshops, they'll have the printed teacher's manual and a sample of the textbook, not the textbook, the modules, compiled modules for that particular subject. because we obviously recognize that not all of them have connectivity. But in some of our schools, the curriculum itself can be enhanced because the digitized curriculum, computer-aided instruction, allows them to do other types of research aside from what they see in the curriculum itself.

So you have the basic here, but for those who have access, you can have an enhancement by looking at other sources. So this present curriculum that is digitized, and will be given to the teachers when they train this April and May. Both are printed copies as well as digital.

This was developed in what year and by who? Well, officially, we started, announced it in October 5, 2010. We had one and a half years to harass ourselves and those who were willing to help us. This was developed by a whole range of...

Technical working groups from academe and our own teachers. The past one and a half years. 2010. 2010. So it's still fresh from the printing press.

In terms of concepts and in terms of events, if this were history... This is very, very recent. The most recent... You'll be, in fact...

some of the comments of the young people. My invitation is for them to please visit the public schools by June this year. Try to observe how the students and the teachers are engaged in learning especially in grade 1 and grade 7. Because K-12 is not about adding two years.

We are not adding two years by June. But we are changing the way students are learning. We don't want teachers to be doing 40 minutes of lecture or 20 minutes of asking the students to copy from this Manila sheet the things that they have on their notebooks. We want students to be very engaged.

And you will find, if you visit our grade 1 and grade 7 classes, that the curriculum, the quality that people are looking for, at least the beginning steps are there. Okay, so the teachers have not yet finished. seen the digitized version and have not been given yet the hard copy.

Our program is for the month of May, for the whole month of May, there will be five day sessions for each of the subject areas that the teachers will be teaching for June. Five day sessions, whole day? Oh yeah.

For this 140? 140. But these are really teachers, for example, in science. Taking that five days so that they will understand what I will teach for grade seven science. So it's very focused. And do you give them an assignment?

After taking... Well, this is the first training program. We will be actually monitoring the implementation and depending on the subject area, there could be a mid-year type of assessment, review and retraining. So this is not one of those... So this is not like it's a test that they will take?

No. And they need to pass whether they actually are fit? to implement this new curriculum?

This one, it is innovative, but it is not that far from what they have been doing in the past years. An experienced teacher, for example, in science, if you give the teachers the right resources and the right time for them to understand that, we'll find it easy to adjust to a new curriculum. The difficulty is, I think in the past, we come up with curriculum that does not provide the necessary support to our teachers.

And when we developed the curriculum for grade 1 and grade 7, we could have written just sketchy outlines of what are the topics and what are the competencies. But it took one year and a half for us to develop them. As I mentioned earlier, you would even find sample pre-tests post-tests.

tests and in some instances expected answers of students because the we knew that teachers don't have as much access to many of these resources and and the teachers you did you pre test this already in a group or this is the first time you will actually use it for the 140 we don't have to pre test it no protesting because as I mentioned These have been implemented in pilot schools. Ah, okay. So that's our basis for adapting many of these. So what is the most exciting part when I, if I were a teacher, and I would be part of that 140,000, what are the new things, or what is the added value of my going through the five day?

A grade one teacher, for example, who will be teaching, we don't have science as a subject for grade one, for example. But in the mother tongue classes, they will be teaching science concepts. But these are not science concepts that are up there.

We teach them about living things. We teach them about temperature, body temperature, things that are closest to them. As our way of slowly bringing them into, you know, becoming more curious, inquisitive about all of these science things. Science is everywhere. We want students to enjoy every single lesson that they are taking.

If you're teaching grade one and using the mother tongue method that you speak about, what about the others who do not speak the mother tongue? This is dialect. When you say mother tongue, this is dialect. This is not Filipino or Tagalog.

This is the official, the 12 languages. This is Kapangpangan and kung ano-ano. Well, in these pilot test schools, there are urban centers and there are rural areas.

In the rural areas, there's more homogeneity there. So this is heterogeneous. Yes. So what happened to the... In the urban centers, there were cases where our teachers adapted.

And they divided the class into three or four groups. I imagine in some areas in the city, even public schools, there will be public schools who may have, as mother tongue, English. Yeah.

I mean, you know, we start by profiling the students. Now, the exciting thing is, and maybe this will mean more work for teachers, but I think it will mean a deeper engagement with the individual students. The teachers will need to know where the students are coming from, what are their difficulties, and what we're emphasizing is, at the end of the day, the most important thing is not the textbook, not the module.

The most important thing is know the learner. And if you know where the learner is, then you can engage him. There's not one way of learning. In a grade one classroom, in a grade one class, how many teachers would you have? Generally.

the teachers in primary are generalists. So they stay with them. And that's psychological. Yes.

Very great. Right, right. And many times that's advantageous because they built a relationship. Yes, I believe that.

And the lessons there are not too specialized that you need to have a special training for different subjects. Okay, final stretch of talk back in a moment. Stay with us, please.

We'll be reading more of your text messages to us. I'm reading your text messages. I salute this move of the DepEd to promote this K-12 program. Some people might say that the K-12 program should not be prioritized by the government because it may need to appropriate more budget for teachers, for books, for new classrooms. But the result is, well, it may take some time, but I think...

I think that education must always be the top priority and this K-12 program should be pursued by those in authority, especially in the Deped. I don't think K-12 will help improve quality education in the Philippines. For me, it's a matter of quality.

The year or the length of the time is not going to be measured. The students will learn. It's up to the teachers, the students, the teachers to learn how to inject the students the things they need to know. Besides, it's also expensive.

It's expensive for the current time. Practical. It's not just for K-12.

Besides, it's also expensive for the parents. It's also up to the children how fast they can learn in their studies. From Leo, the diversity of learners nowadays is different compared to the past. How can trainings improve the K-12 system?

From Nico Narvacan, I think K-12 will take our education system to a higher level. All we have to do is to cooperate and be optimistic about it. From SP, Lucena, no to K-12, pang mayaman lang yan sa bagay pang baba ng populasyon magastos.

Okay, what was I asking you? What is, in your experience as an educator in La Salle, as you were even growing up, what is that thing that is instilled in the mind of a student that makes him want to go and learn and really become someone as he grows up? Where is that magic? Only one X factor, and that's instilling fun in learning.

Fun, F-U-N. It's more fun also in the school. It's more fun in the Philippines, it's more fun in the school.

Why? In fact, Tina, I met with our regional directors and our teachers, our trainers, and I told them, June 4 is the first day of class, I want you all to be on school uniform, and anyone who's not smiling is out of uniform. I meant that, and I was very serious about it. School?

The students become engaged when they are with a teacher who has fun teaching her students, his students, about lessons. Who's excited and dynamic about it. There's no question about that.

In our kinder classrooms, I told our partners, please bring in toys, stuffed toys, all types of things that will make our kinder students enjoy going to school. You can have a teacher with... very minimal resources but when she is excited about what I will teach my students today that catches fire with the students themselves so you in the new curriculum that's what we're trying to emphasize that we don't have to be too bookish We don't have to look at the content only.

We want teachers to be so excited that they can teach science pala in the kitchen or under a mango tree because there are a lot of living things there. We don't have to bring them to a laboratory. So these are the stuff that we want to embed in the K-12 curriculum. But the teacher here is at the center of the innovation and the reform. What do the parents know?

have to do? Well, many things, Juan. The parents will have to provide the basic support system at home.

So that when the students go to school, they do not bring with them the anxieties, the problems, and the worries that they are not able to resolve at home. Okay, but if the subject matter, especially with the new introduction of this new curriculum, is brought home by the child who has a parent who is not at all schooled. How does that affect the child's love for education? This is actually interesting because we're trying to develop a farm school. A type of a school where, because the learners are needed by their families during the seasons when you have harvest or planting.

Not for child labor, really as an extra help. We recognize that absenteeism is one of the main causes for that. And I said, as modeled by some of our schools, we don't have to have a very rigid school calendar.

It is possible to adapt the school calendar according to the seasons. In relation to the seasons for harvest and planting. Exactly. Now, is that time of the student... helping his farmer parent lost time?

I said no. Only in so far as the teacher is unable to use that experience for the science lesson, the math lesson. So you're asking our teachers in the farm schools, well that is your laboratory. Bring in as an assignment, ask them to look at, count the number of palay seeds that sprouted and those that did not.

That will be your statistical report. And as they do that, the dependents of the farmers will be forced to ask their parents who were not schooled, Tatay, bakit ganito po, hindi ito tumubo? They have wisdom that they can teach our students that they cannot find in a textbook.

That is true because my friends now who grew up in farms and they're now educated, they go to the best school in Manila, they remember very distinctly. distinctly the learnings of their experience in the farm with their dad who was a farmer. The problem with the traditional curriculum is we've always stereotyped the farmer.

Anybody who's unschooled has nothing to teach me. So we've never gone to them. One of my trips several weeks back is in Ifugao, in Sagada, for example. And what we're trying to do is to make sure that the indigenous wisdom is also passed on to the next generation.

And the barrier that, well, this is not official knowledge, or it's not in the books. No, it's not. It should be transcended.

We have to begin looking at the communities around us, even indigenous peoples, our elders, even unschooled ones, as also sources of knowledge for our students. You will not be held accountable for laying down the K-12. at these early stages and implementing it to any congressional...

Well, I invite those who have questions about how exactly this will roll out. What we're doing now in terms of renewing, revising the curriculum is something the department should be doing at regular intervals. We are not adding yet those... two years which would need congressional a bill who is the author of the bill we have to what in Congress that's the speaker and and the chairman of education is congressman escudero in the Senate that's senator Angara's also the chairman of plus bus various colleagues so there are two versions of it we would need somehow to kind of harmonize them But in fact, I've attended at least one hearing in the House of Representatives on the K-12. We would have one in the Senate soon.

So it is no longer the Education Act of 19... Well, that is still the basis until the new law supersedes that. So, last words, brother. What do you see in the first two years of the implementation of the results of the training that you will provide? A lot of hard work.

Teachers will be ready to actually go through summer trainings regularly. We should be doing this every summer. And not only for those who will be doing the grade 2 and grade 8, but also for the other year levels.

So there is no opportunity for you to review performances of teachers and how they are actually learning from this new training? We will be doing a monitoring of the grade 1 and grade 7, a more focused type of monitoring, because that's the first year rollout. In fact, there will be like a... feedback mechanism whereby teachers using the curriculum can immediately send their comments as well as suggested revisions to our committee so that we could already include that in the next year's rollout.

So this will be a continuing development for the curriculum itself, even as we develop the upper years for the other subsequent years. Okay, when will the textbooks be ready? It is. now being they should now be in the process of being delivered I told them you start with the farthest school we've always started with the nearest well I said no change that the the poorest and the farthest school first and we just cascade that to the urban centers our target is by June for the students come to school the teachers are all smiling and one get their first one yes every child will have the full set that's right that's a start As a start.

Thank you very much, brother, for joining us. Thank you, Tia. Thank you for your time. I hope we were able to answer some of the nagging questions of our viewers here. Thank you very much to Brother Luistro from the Department of Education.

That's all the time we have. Talk to us again next week on Talk Back.

Transcript for:K-12 Education Reform in the Philippines

Transcript for:
K-12 Education Reform in the Philippines