Students line up outside Manuel A. Roxas High School in Quezon City on Feb. 1, 2023. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File
MANILA — The ongoing review of the K to 10 curriculum is "already in the final stages," the Department of Education (DepEd) spokesperson Atty. Michael Poa said on Friday.
"We will have a rollout once finalized," he added in a Viber message to ABS-CBN News.
The review of the K to 10 curriculum started during the previous administration, while the curriculum review of Grades 11 to 12 or Senior High School began in November 2022. Consultations with experts are being held to identify which areas need to be focused on, according to Poa.
He earlier explained the agency's long-term solution to learning loss would be the revisions to the curriculum of the K to 12 program.
The official said the revisions would help "decongest" the curriculum, allotting more time to literacy and numeracy, which serve as the foundation of students so that they would not have a hard time as they advance to the next grade levels.
"It's really to recalibrate. Ayaw nating sabihin kaagad na babawasan, but we will recalibrate iyong ating curriculum. Kasi nakita natin na congested, so ang dami daming learning competencies. So pwede talagang magbawas tayo ng competencies para po mapagtuunan talaga natin at mabigyan natin ng panahon iyong core subjects," Poa said.
(We don't want to immediately say that it will be reduced, but we will recalibrate our curriculum. Because we saw that it is congested, so there are many learning competencies. So we can really reduce the competencies so that we can really focus and give time to your core subjects.)
In her Basic Education Report last January, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte vowed to "produce competent, job-ready, active, and responsible citizens" and to "revise the K to 12 curriculum to make them more responsive to our aspiration as a nation, to develop lifelong learners who are imbued with 21st-century skills, discipline, and patriotism."
The K to 12 Program covers 13 years of basic education: from Kindergarten to Grade 6, Grades 7 to 10 (Junior High School), and Grades 11 and 12 (Senior High School).