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DepEd BER, all talk
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BY PINK PENELOPY FLORES
Recognizing that there is an educational crisis is the first step in solving the educational crisis On January30,VicePresident(VP)and
Education Secretary Sara Duterte delivered a report on the basic education system of the country, highlighting issues concerning the welfare of teachers and learners, education facilities and services, Kto12 program, and literacy issues amonglearners
VPDutertebeganwithlistingout the statistics of the number of school facilities that need repair, mentioning that Php 982 billion wasneededforthereplacement of classrooms in Visayas along after the damage caused by TyphoonOdette
Inaddition,shementionedthat there is an issue occurring with the centralized procurement of the Department of Education (DepEd) regarding the infrastructure projects With all thedatathatshehasmentioned, she has not said anything about any steps that they will take to addresstheconcern.Instead,she immediately jumped to the enrollment data trends, which donotmakesenseatall
The VP also expressed her concern about the K to 12 curriculum being congested, prerequisites of essential learning competencies being misplaced, and that some of these competencies demand excessive cognitive processes. However, no data has been shared regarding thesepoints,andsimilartothefirst issue she mentioned, no steps to addressthisconcernwasstated
Highlighting on the assessed issuesoftheKto12curriculum,VP Duterte also stated that teachers have “weak teaching methods” in addressing 21st century skills of learners Shementionedthatitis due to the system of “timeconsuming administrative tasks” Yet, the only solution that she has proposed during her speech was to have teachers return to the school to teach. Even when the literacyissuesofthestudentswere mentioned, all she did was utter facts and data and no concrete planonhowtosolvetheseissues
While it is true that recognizing the existence of a crisis is the first stepinsolvingone,whyisitthatthe administration stops at recognizing, and does not move on to concrete planningandaction?Whenwillthe country witness an actual change and improvement in the education system? Will it take another set of administration to state existing problems in the system, becoming anever-endingcycleofreports?
