BusinessMirror.com.ph
Saturday, 23 June 2012 19:33 by Fil V. Elefante
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| ace-features.blogspot.com |
That’s his main point when he explained the rationale for adopting the new K+12 Basic Education Program. He explained that the changes the Department of Education (DepEd) envision will not happen overnight, adding that the program will be a continuing work in progress.
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How would you describe a typical day for you as Education Secretary?
I don’t use a template. Generally, since I started in this office, I use a lot of my time, about 40 percent, doing unannounced visits to the schools. That keeps me very much in touch with the realities in the field. It also allows me to understand the department’s bureaucracy and how the system works. This is important. The reality here in the central office is obviously very different from the reality in the field. I spend another 40 percent of my time conducting command center type meetings. Take for example the classroom shortage. I bring together the relevant units in the central office and the field. We look at the problem, study the program, determine who’s in charge of certain aspects and hopefully come up with a workable solution. The big problem in a bureaucracy is that sometimes, different units work on their own, occasionally leading to uncoordinated developments. So I think part of my role is to ensure that there is very smooth interaction and coordination between the various units to enable the Department of Education to address urgent needs in a timely manner.
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| image from philstar.com |
In effect, you have two roles here, as an administrator and an educator?
Actually, I have a third role. The other 20 percent of my time is devoted to linking up with stake holders in the education sector. This is important because education requires a lot of support from the community. The DepEd cannot do it alone. Sometimes, even during weekends or dinners, I meet with envoys from other countries and try to broker a concrete program that their governments can support.
How about the other stakeholders?
What can you say about the K+12 Basic Education Program?
This program actually started last year with the introduction of kindergarten classes. This year, we’re implementing the second phase. It’s really a phased in implementation. This year we’re doing Grade 1 and Grade 7 for the high school. This program will be implemented in phases in the next six years. By the end of the program, we would have introduced the additional two years by 2016.
What should be emphasized about this program?
This is a curriculum designed by Filipinos for Filipinos that can stand up to any curriculum existing in the world. By and large, the program is adapted from proven educational systems abroad. This is not unprecedented. In fact, our present public-school system was based on the one put up by the Thomasites.
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| Image from www.chrispforr.net |
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| photo courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk |
The group that came from America to the Philippines at the turn of the century?
Yes. If we look at the old education system, a lot of the subjects included are very alien to Filipinos, especially the sciences and math. I think that’s why in the past several years, we have rated very low in those two subjects, science and math. I think the old curriculum was not really enmeshed with essential elements of the Filipino culture. We have to ask the question: How does a Filipino naturally think? That’s why the heart of the reform of the K+12 Program begins in kindergarten and Grade 1.
Can you elaborate further?
What we’re really pushing for is really a mother tongue based bilingual education. This is not only about language. It also involves developing a way of thinking, a way of speaking and a way of looking at reality. Let us take as an example the concept of the olfactory sense in English. Our dialects have a rich vocabulary for what in English is a foul smell. In Tagalog, we have mabantot, mabaho, mapanghi, etc. In English, it’s just a foul smell. And a foreigner told me this. This concept of smell is very critical to science. By using the mother tongue, we would help the children understand such concepts in a way that’s very familiar to them. In effect, the students learn a basic concept in a manner that is natural for them, not alien. The student will eventually understand science as part of his life. It would no longer be so alien that such a simple concept will have to be taken up in a laboratory.
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| mlephilippines.org |
So this is also has a regional basis?
Yes. As the student grows older, he learns about Rizal but in the context of, say, an Ilocano. This is a healthy appreciation of Rizal. It allows an Ilocano or Cebuano to understand someone who came from another region. As we do that, as we go all the way to fourth-year high school, then they will understand the world and realize that by being rooted in the Philippines, we don’t have to kowtow to any foreigner. Our students learn that our culture is as rich and varied as those in other countries. For those in senior high school, we developed a curriculum based on the Rice Terraces. What we did was embed the engineering concepts of the Ifugaos in the math and science subjects. The Ifugaos already had this engineering knowledge even before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines. What we’re showing is that engineering is not a foreign concept for Filipinos. If early Filipinos didn’t understand engineering, then they couldn’t have built the Rice Terraces. These early Filipinos already have a hydro and agricultural system that has been preserved for the past 2,000 years. That’s my point when I say that the old curriculum is a little alien for Filipinos.
Let’s take another example, this time algebra. What we have done is develop an algebra based on Philippine weaving. This is based on a research done by the University of the Philippines. What we want to prove is that we can tap the richness and knowledge of local culture for higher learning. That’s the K+12 Program. Did we borrow from others to develop this program? Yes. But before we did that, we made also included elements of our own culture, of what makes us Filipino, in the program.
We both grew up under the old curriculum. We are what we are today because of that...
We went through that system. That’s true. However, we have to look at the old system with a new perspective. The question is not whether the old system is wrong. Rather, the proper question we have to answer is whether the old system is still appropriate or not knowing what we know now. Is the old curriculum still appropriate for the next generation? Let’s look at our history. The Ilustrados, most of whom were involved in the Philippine Revolution, all studied abroad. What did these heroes do with their education? They didn’t return to the country to simply copy what was abroad. Take for example Rizal. Rizal was an excellent Renaissance man because of his education in Europe. What did he do when he returned to the country? He adapted, not copied, what he learned abroad to the things he found when Spanish authorities exiled him in Dapitan. He showed that despite his foreign education, he was firmly rooted in the Philippines. I think that is what we should emulate.
So part of this is adaptation?
Let’s face this fact: a curriculum needs to be periodically reviewed, about once every five years. A curriculum is a way of looking at and understanding the world. The world perpetually changes. If a curriculum remains static despite the changing world, then something is wrong. The key word then is “appropriateness.” We can learn a lot just by looking at our country. We also learn by looking at other countries. But we have to heed the lessons they’ve learned from their mistakes. And by adapting these lessons, we can better prepare the next generation of students to face the world they will live in.
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| www.robertlpeters.com |
