As public schools open for Academic Year (AY) 2023-2024, Senator Win Gatchalian urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to maintain focus on learning recovery and preparations for the 2024 rollout of the K to 10 MATATAG curriculum.
The Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education also hailed the efforts of DepEd and teachers for restoring normalcy to the basic education sector.
Gatchalian, however, pressed the need to address learning poverty and to strengthen fundamental skills such as literacy and numeracy. Learning poverty in the country is at 90.9% based on World Bank estimates as of June 2022. While the DepEd has rolled out programs like the National Learning Camp, Gatchalian said that the rollout of these interventions should capture struggling learners who need the most intervention.
The Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act (Senate Bill No.1604), which Gatchalian filed, seeks to establish a national learning recovery program to accelerate learning recovery and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including learning loss. The program’s target includes learners who are below the minimum proficiency levels required in Language, Mathematics, and Science.
The senator also emphasized the importance of preparing for the rollout of the revised K to 10 MATATAG curriculum, which will start rolling out by AY 2024-2025 for Grades 1, 4, and 7, followed by other grade levels in the next school years until 2028.
This school year, however, a pilot implementation of the revised curriculum will run in selected schools. According to Gatchalian, this pilot run should be formally studied to further refine the curriculum and its implementation. The senator also stressed the importance of aligning teacher education and training to the MATATAG curriculum.
“Nakasalalay sa ating mga guro ang tagumpay at epektibong pagpapatupad ng MATATAG curriculum. Dapat nating tiyakin ang kanilang kahandaan sa pamamagitan ng mga dekalidad na pagsasanay,” Gatchalian concluded.
