OBERO, GERALDINE C.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
11:30-2:30SATURDAY

CURRICULUM IN THE PHILIPPINES AFTER MARCOS REGIME

Fifth Republic

A new Constitution for the Philippines was ratified on February 2, 1987, and proclaimed in force of
February 11. Section 3, Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution contains the ten fundamental aims of
education in the Philippines. It is also seen that under the 1987 Constitution (under Section 2 (2), Article
XIV), only elementary school was made compulsory.
In 1987, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports became the Department of Education, Culture and
Sports under Executive Order No. 117. The structure of DECS as embodied in the order remained
practically unchanged until 1994.
On May 26, 1988, the Congress of the Philippines enacted the Republic Act 6655 and the Free Public
Secondary Education Act of 1988, which mandated free public secondary education commencing in the
school year 19881989.
On February 3, 1992, the Congress enacted Republic Act 7323, which provided that students aged 15 to
25 may be employed during Christmas and summer vacation with a salary not lower than the minimum
wagewith 60% of the wage paid by the employer and 40% by the government.
The Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM) report of 1991 recommended the division of
DECS into three parts. On May 18, 1994, the Congress passed Republic Act 7722, the Higher Education
Act of 1994, creating the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), which assumed the functions of the
Bureau of Higher Education and supervised tertiary degree programs. On August 25, 1994, the Congress
passed Republic Act 7796, the Technical Education and Skills Development Act of 1994, creating the
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), which absorbed the Bureau of
Technical-Vocational Education as well as the National Manpower and Youth Council, and began to
supervise non-degree technical-vocational programs. DECS retained responsibility for all elementary and
secondary education. This threefold division became known as the "trifocal system of education in the
Philippines".
Cory Aquino remained subservient to the dictates of foreign banks and powers, which would attain larger
roles in crafting the countrys educational policies. Her regimes New Secondary Education Curriculum
of 1989, for instance, would simply serve as the high school version of Marcos NESC.

Philippines 2000 and beyond

The same pattern would continue under Fidel Ramos whose Education 2000 program would direct the
reduction of government funding for state universities and colleges (SUCs) in order to make way for
higher allocations for foreign debt servicing.
The short-lived Estrada regime would meanwhile form the Philippine Commission on Educational
Reform (PCER) which recommended that the use of large allocations of the government budget for
public higher education is perceived to be inefficient and inequitable.
Some of the proposals of the study, in the main, included the raising of tuition to realistic levels, the
use of SUCs idle assets for commercial purposes, and intensified fund-raising from the private sector.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyos Long Term Higher Education Development Plan (LTHEDP) would
put this direction to its logical conclusion by directing:

The decrease of SUCs by 20 percent,

Transforming 20 percent of SUCs into semi-corporatized entities,

Making 20 percent self-sufficient by selling intellectual products and grants,

Requiring 50 percent of SUCs to engage in active income generating projects,

Having 70 percent of SUCs charge tuition comparable to private universities, and

Involving 60 percent of SUCs into collaborations with big business.

In order to produce a globally competitive labor force, the Arroyo government also introduced the
World Bank and the Asian Development Bank-recommended Millennium Curriculum which
emphasized English, Math and Science at the expense of history, humanities and social sciences.
The same perverted logic would form the core of the education policies of the Aquino regime. His
Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016 would aim to Harness private-sector resources in the delivery
and monitoring of, social marketing and advocacy for education, especially higher education.
The implementation of K to 12 would meanwhile take-off where the Millennium Curriculum left by
creating a new generation of cheap semi-skilled workers who are employable by transnational
corporations or qualified for labor exports immediately after high school graduation.

2000s

In August 2001, Republic Act 9155, otherwise called the Governance of Basic Education Act, was passed.
This act changed the name of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) to the Department
of Education and redefined the role of field offices (regional offices, division offices, district offices and
schools). The act provided the overall framework for school empowerment by strengthening the
leadership roles of headmasters and fostering transparency and local accountability for school
administrations. The goal of basic education was to provide the school age population and young adults
with skills, knowledge, and values to become caring, self-reliant, productive, and patriotic citizens.
In 2005, the Philippines spent about US$138 per pupil compared to US$3,728 in Japan, US$1,582 in
Singapore and US$852 in Thailand.
In January 2009, the Department of Education signed a memorandum of agreement with the United
States Agency for International Development to seal $86 million assistance to Philippine education,
particularly the access to quality education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM),
and the Western and Central Mindanao regions.

2010s and the K12 program

The start of the twenty-first century's second decade saw a major improvement in the Philippine education
system.
In 2011, the Department of Education started to implement the new K-12 educational system, which also
included a new curriculum for all schools nationwide. The K-12 program has a so-called "phased
implementation", which started in S.Y 2011-2012.
There are four "phases" during the implementation of the new system. These are:

Phase I: Laying the Foundations. Its goal is to finally implement the universal kindergarten, and
the "development of the (entire) program".

Phase II: Modeling and Migration. Its goal is to promote the enactment of the basic education
law, to finally start of the phased implementation of the new curriculum for Grades 1 to 4 and 7 to
10, and for the modeling of the senior high school.

Phase III: Complete Migration. Its goal is to finally implement the Grades 11 and 12 or the
senior high school, and to signal the end of migration to the new educational system.

Phase IV: Completion of the Reform. Its goal is to complete the implementation of the K12
education system.

Outline of the new system

In kindergarten, the pupils are mandated to learn the alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors
through games, songs, and dances, but in their mother tongue; thus after Grade 1, every student
can read on his/her mother tongue.
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The 12 original mother tongue languages that have been introduced for the 20122013
school year are Bahasa Sug, Bikolano, Cebuano, Chabacano, Hiligaynon, Iloko,
Kapampangan, Maguindanaoan, Meranao, Pangasinense, Tagalog, and Waray.

7 more mother tongue languages have been introduced for the 20132014 school year.
These are Ibanag, Ivatan, Sambal, Akeanon, Kinaray-a, Yakan and Surigaonon.

In Grade 1, the subject areas of English and Filipino are taught, with a focus on "oral fluency".

In Grade 4, the subject areas of English and Filipino are gradually introduced, but now, as
"languages of instruction".

The Science and Mathematics subjects are now modified to use the spiral progression approach
starting as early as Grade 1 which means that every lesson will be taught in every grade level
starting with the basic concepts to the more complex concepts of that same lesson until Grade 10.

The high school from the former system will now be called junior high school, while senior high
school will be the 11th and 12th year of the new educational system. It will serve as a specialized
upper secondary education. In the senior high school, students may choose a specialization based
on aptitude, interests, and school capacity. The choice of career track will define the content of
the subjects a student will take in Grades 11 and 12. Senior high school subjects fall under either
the core curriculum or specific tracks.
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Core curriculum learning areas include languages, literature, communication,

There are three choices that are available to be chosen by the students or the so-called
"specific tracks". These are:

Academics, which includes three strands which are:

1. Business, accountancy, and management

Technical-vocational-livelihood, which specializes in vocational learning. A student can

Sports and arts, which is responsible for educating senior high school students in the
fields of sports and arts.