High hopes for decongested Matatag curriculum
A RETOOLED version of the Matatag curriculum could improve the Philippines' rating in the tests conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The Philippines faltered in the exam, posting a second to the lowest mean score of 14, tying with Uzbekistan but higher than Albania, which scored the lowest among all countries who participated in the assessment.
The Philippines' score was also lower than the mean score of 33 — the OECD average. Both male and female Filipino examinees scored lower than the OECD average on creative thinking performance.
Roman Romulo, chairman of the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture, said the country's low rating in the creative thinking assessment was the result of the congestion in the current curriculum.
«If we cannot master basic functional literacy, how can we improve on our higher literacy? Our basic literacy such as reading comprehension also lagged in the PISA (Program on International Student Assessment) exam in 2018 and 2022,» Romulo said in Filipino.
He added that a decongested curriculum with fewer subjects and competencies will allow students to master higher skills such as creative thinking.
He expressed some reservations on the administration of the PISA creative thinking test.
Advertisement«It was not clear how it was graded based on the scenarios that they gave to learners if they are creative or not, but be that as it may, our point remains that we need to improve our basic competencies» Romulo said.
The revised Matatag curriculum will be implemented in Grades 1, 4 and 7, at the beginning of the school year 2024-2025. RED MENDOZA
