For years, the Philippines has been battling systemic problems in basic education, and later found a solution to decongest what the K-12 curriculum had done. Thus came the MATATAG curriculum, and now, with the Strengthened Senior High School (SHS) Curriculum. These were created to address the learning gap in the country and erase the chaotic state of students who memorized things but learned nothing. Yes, I am one of the students affected by this learning gap, but what I want to ask is: will these revised and implemented curriculums guarantee to solve our learning crisis?
The Department of Education’s answer to the learning problems in the country is MATATAG and now with the SSHS. On paper, it is a structural masterpiece: slash the competencies by 70%, condense 15 core senior high subjects into 5 integrated learning areas, and focus on depth over breadth. But the real question is: have students really learned something? Or will they just compete with burnout while trying to save their grades? The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) reports that the recent baseline data is staggering: nearly half of Filipino learners are still struggling to meet grade-level reading proficiencies, and an alarming number of Grade 11 students are classified as non-independent readers.
The same problems still occur: Filipino students struggle to read, face functional illiteracy, and are poor at critical and logical skills.
But why? There are solutions, there are interventions, and there are alternatives. Yet, it still occurs because the school has become a real battleground for the students, leaving them unable to grasp the concepts they are taught. We combat piled-up school activities; we study until midnight; we keep entering school with so much on our minds. We can’t learn because our minds are focused on how we can survive the battle rather than how we can learn and retain knowledge.
The problem isn’t in the students nor the teachers. It is in the system. Stop piling up subject requirements; instead, focus on how students can really learn rather than just attaining academic distinctions and climbing to reach honors in this new grading system. Don’t put the students in a school environment where we feel like we’re inside a pressure cooker—pressured to comply with subject requirements, and forced to choose between creating activities for independent learning or resting. We can’t always put academics as the only priority; we can’t bring the school into our homes.
Let us out of this pressure cooker.
Who will be the future of this nation if we lose our eagerness? Who will stand for this country if we are burned out and feel like education puts too much pressure on us? We face high expectations; please consider us. We can be a better future if we are molded right today.
