Angara wants ‘curriculum stability’, dramatic action to address classroom shortage

EDUCATION Secretary Sonny Angara yesterday said there will be a “curriculum stability” under his watch while “dramatic actions” are needed to address the perennial classroom shortage in the country.

In an interview after attending his first flag-raising ceremony as DepEd chief, Angara said the Matatag curriculum championed by his predecessor, Vice President Sara Duterte, will remain in place.

“I want to have curriculum stability. They say every time there is a new DepEd secretary, there is also a new curriculum. But I have no plans to change the curriculum,” said Angara, who assumed the top DepEd post last week.

“We just want to work from what’s already there, so we will continue the piloting of the Matatag curriculum for Grades 1, 4, and 7 for this year tapos sa susunod na taon ‘yung Grades 2, 3, 5, and 8,” he added.

The Matatag curriculum or the revised K to 10 curriculum was Duterte’s main program in her two-year stint as DepEd chief.

It targets the “decongestion” of the current curriculum to improve the quality of basic education in the country.

Among the revisions in the K to 10 program include reducing the number of competencies and greater emphasis on the development of foundational skills such as literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills to Kinder to Grade 3 learners.

The current curriculum has seven competencies, namely, Mother Tongue, Filipino, English, Mathematics, Araling Panlipunan, MAPEH, and Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao.

Under the Matatag curriculum there will only be five competencies, namely, Language, Reading and Literacy, Mathematics, Makabansa, and GMRC.

The DepEd has yet to release the result of its review of the K12 or Senior High School curriculum.

CLASSROOM SHORTAGE

Angara promised dramatic actions to address the classroom shortage, which he said stands at around 159,000 nationwide.

“If I recall it right, the classroom backlog stands at about 159,00. The problem here is that the backlog grows by 12,000 every year because of the population increase, and we are only able to construct almost 2,000 classrooms every year.

“So, we need to do something dramatic here. I think we need to study the standard in the construction of classrooms,” he