PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. issued marching orders to newly appointed Education Secretary, Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara to improve the country’s performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and changing the curriculum’s approach to teaching history, stated in an “24 Oras” GMA News report.
According to the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), President Marcos Jr., appointed Sen. Angara in lieu of the resignation of Vice President Sara Duterte on June 19, 2024.
Both the appointment of Sen. Angara and the resignation of VP Duterte will take effect on July 19.
Gen Zs approve
With these orders to call for the improvement in the education sector of the country, Generation Z or Gen Z share their thoughts on these instructions from the president for the incoming DepEd secretary.
Carlos Miguel Concepcion, an incoming fourth-year history major from the University of Santo Tomas (UST), states that if assessments like PISA show that the country’s students still fall short in math, science, and reading, then it’s time to get to the bottom of how this curriculum was implemented, who are the ones teaching it, what are the students’ thoughts, and their current situation in this curriculum.
He raises the question of “how” the newly appointed education secretary will improve the performance of Filipino students with all of the layers that need to be addressed. Such as what change to the curriculum will be done? What of the current MATATAG curriculum? Who made the previous curriculum and the new curriculum? How will it be implemented and what changes to that curriculum and will it be helpful to the development of Filipino students?
Concepcion adds that reading comprehension and writing is a good investment in education at the basic and advanced level, “Maganda na maituturo sa mga mag-aaral na hindi lamang SCIENCE at MATHEMATICS ang dapag nilang bigyang focus kundi pati yung READING dahil sa kahit anong bagay man, kailangan na marunong tayong magbasa at makaintindi ng binabasa.”
Henry Nopia Jr., a bachelor of secondary education student majoring in Math from Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, agrees on improving the country’s performance in PISA as it means that there will be more focus on enhancing students’ capabilities in core subjects.
The current curriculum is idealistic, Nopia adds, “idealistic in a way na in reality hindi na technically nasusunod ‘yung curriculum dahil sa knowledge overload and workload as well in the curriculum, PH is not ready pa sumabay sa ibang countries for this curriculum since it is adapted from other countries din if I’m not wrong.”
Nopia explains that the practice of “no student should be left behind” in the current curriculum is only bringing negative results to students, where learning is being the secondary priority, “ideally yes it’s great, but in reality pumapasok ‘yung ‘ay ipapasa nalang kita, maituturo pa naman ‘yan next year’ and then mauulit lang ‘yung line na ‘yun next year to the extent na hindi na natuto ‘yung bata…”
Gen Zs’ concerns
DepEd states that the Philippines lags five to six years behind in learning competencies compared to other countries, according to a 2023 article from PhilStar.
In terms of creative thinking, a recent article from ABS-CBN News writes that students in the Philippines have the lowest performance with a rank of 60 out of 62 countries.
The second order of PBBM to Sen. Angara is to change the current approach to teaching history.
Concepcion raises the concern of weak teaching of Philippine history in elementary and high school, as well as teaching it as an “objective” subject. There is also the issue of outdated Philippine History books, “marahil sasabihin ng ilan na ‘iyan ay nakasulat na sa kasaysayan kaya bakit magbabago pa,’ isang notion na may pagkamali dahil masasabi kong kahit ang history ay nagkakaroon ng updates lalo kung higit na mapag-aaralan ng mga historyador ang isang bagay/paksa/ideya.”
On the other hand, Nopia does not agree with this change but adds, “I believe kasi na in learning, we don’t fully change something, we adapt and integrate that from the traditional ones but we won’t change the teaching history.”
“I am against changing sa memorization kasi in the first place, we first memorize things before we comprehend them, we don’t understand the letters symbols, to begin with, we memorized the symbols of the letters kaya up until now we know the alphabet, there are topics that are needed to be memorized, but there are more lessons na need ng comprehension, that’s why I am against sa changing, instead, we adapt, we innovate…”
Sen. Angara’s previous legislative work includes the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act and the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (K-12).
His educational background is also one of the factors that led him to the appointment by PBBM, with a Master of Laws from Harvard University, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics.
