Teachers dealing with new curriculum containing fewer subjects, says DepEd

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) reports that teachers are adapting to the new curriculum for students in grades K-10.

DepEd Deputy Spokesperson Francis Cesar Bringas made the statement during the New Philippines Now public briefing.

“The one thing we saw is that, initially, our teachers have challenges when it comes to familiarizing themselves with the skills that we have reduced the number of skills so much,” Bringas said.

(From what we saw, initially there were challenges for our teachers when it came to familiarizing themselves with the different skills, because we drastically reduced the number of skills.)

“And, of course, we will produce our learning materials appropriate to our revised curriculum,” she said.

(And, of course, our production of learning materials appropriate to our revised curriculum.)

However, Bringas said the problems only lasted for the first few weeks.

She said the difficulties were overcome because of the support from DepEd offices and feedback.

Bringas added that collaborative sessions were held weekly where teachers discussed their experiences and the interventions they needed.

Under the new ‘Matatag’ curriculum, classes from kindergarten to year 10 focus on five fundamental skills.

These skills are Language, Reading and Literacy, Mathematics, Makabansa (nationalism) and Good Manners and Right Conduct.

These subjects are fewer compared to the seven areas covered in the previous curriculum.

The previous subjects were Mother Tongue, Filipino, English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Music, Arts, Physical and Health Education, and Values ​​Education.