The enhanced curriculum

Revising a curriculum is no easy task.

After we find out which parts of the curriculum have to be changed, we have to structure the entire curriculum. It is like decorating a room. Let us say that you want to put up a painting on a wall. You have to remove whatever is on that wall, make sure that the pieces of furniture in the room do not clash with the colors in the painting, move your armchair a bit nearer or farther away from the painting in order to be able to view it properly, and so on. You cannot change one small part of something without thinking about the entire thing.

We also cannot change the curriculum in midstream. We cannot suddenly tell Fourth Year high school students that they will not graduate because they have to take Fifth Year. Ethically, schools and students agree on an unwritten contract that the curriculum at the time of enrolment will be the same curriculum at the time of graduation. This is the reason the Department of Education (DepEd) introduces a new curriculum only after ten or more years. DepEd has to wait until those already in Grade 1 graduate from high school (after the present ten years of basic education). A completely new curriculum can be imposed only on those coming in as Grade 1.

Under certain circumstances, it is possible to revise only the high school curriculum. Even in this case, we have to wait until those already in First Year have finished Fourth Year (under the present system).

After drawing up a curriculum on paper (including such things as expected competencies, prerequisites, qualifications, learning areas, scope, coverage, and outcomes), curriculum designers have to think about the textbooks and other instructional materials that will have to be created for the new or revised subjects. Although teacher training is a separate process, curriculum designers also have to give pointers on how teachers should be trained to handle the subjects. There also has to be some way to determine if and when the curriculum needs to be revised; this is called program assessment or evaluation.

Before full implementation, there usually is a year-long pilot to debug the curriculum, as well as a longer transition period within which some students will be following the old curriculum and some following the new.

In short, changing the curriculum cannot be done haphazardly or quickly. It will take some time to get students to follow the new curriculum, particularly one that will take 12 years rather than ten.

It is not just a matter of spreading out the ten-year curriculum into 12 years. It is also not just a matter of adding new subjects in the two additional years. Curriculum design is holistic and comprehensive. It has to be rational and deliberate. Otherwise, as the opponents of President Aquino’s plan to extend the basic education cycle say, we will just be adding two more years of bad education.

The rapid changes in the world have made curriculum design even more difficult. We have to revise the subjects according to what our students will face 12 years from now. As the Web video “Did You Know?” puts it, “we are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist.”

DepEd’s enhanced curriculum aims to meet the overall objective of preparing children for productive work, either as employees or entrepreneurs, while maintaining its current academic thrust.

The DepEd model includes, among other things, the introduction of work-related subjects across the curriculum, the establishment of special Science Sections and Arts Sections, the offering of specialized subjects (such as Agriculture, Fisheries, IT, Security, Sports, and others) for those with no aptitude nor desire to continue to college, and the bringing down to the high school level of several subjects now offered as part of the General Education Curriculum of CHED (such as English, Filipino, General Science, and Math, including Calculus). In short, DepEd is not going to have two more years of the same, but 12 revitalized years of 21st century education.

By the way, I wrote this column before Secretary Armin Luistro unveiled the official DepEd plan last Tuesday (my deadline was Monday). I based my previous columns, as well as this one, on earlier drafts of the DepEd plan. I will write about the official plan in future columns.

TEACHING TIP OF THE WEEK. Here’s a teaching tip from the British Council:

“Keep in tune with the class. Don’t just glide along with the best. If one student answers your questions this is not proof that all the others are following what is being discussed. Aim for responses from as wide a sample as possible. Don’t just accept answers from the three or four class leaders or you will leave the rest behind.”

Good students will learn whether teachers teach them well or not. The test of a good teacher is whether poor students become good students by the end of a term or year.

RETURN TO THE 18TH CENTURY: There is still time to visit the Galleon Andalucia, a replica of an 18th-century galleon. It is docked at Pier 13 at the South Harbor, where the public can board it (until Saturday) and see what life must have been like for the first OFWs.