MANILA (UPDATE) — The Department of Education said Tuesday it has revised the basic education curriculum following a review, reducing learning competencies for the upcoming school year.
Learning competencies refer to the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes that students need to demonstrate in every lesson or learning activity, according to a 2015 DepEd order.
For School Year 2020 to 2021, the DepEd reduced learning competencies by 60 percent, retaining only 5,689 which were considered "most essential" from the original 14,171, according to a presentation delivered by Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan at the House of Representatives on Monday.
Malaluan said the revised curriculum would be used "only for this year, for now."
"We will still review it again for longer term within the year," he told reporters in a Viber message.
In an earlier press briefing, Malaluan said the reduction was part of the K-12 curriculum review, which started almost 2 years ago, and aimed to address the overlaps in learning competencies.
K-12, a flagship education program of the past administration, had added two years to the education cycle, giving students more time to learn, with the goal of preparing them better for either college or qualification for employment even after high school.
"'Yong mga overlaps, 'yong unnecessary competencies, 'yong puwedeng i-merge, 'yon 'yong ginawa nila, at ima-map doon 'yong learning resources at io-orient ang mga guro kung paano ituturo," he said in a May 11 press briefing.
(The overlaps, unnecessary competencies and those that can be merged, we did it. The learning resources will be mapped from the competencies and teachers will be oriented on how to teach them.)
Malaluan added that all subjects would still be taught in the upcoming school year, which is set to start on August 24 - a later date set because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Schools are expected to implement various learning delivery modes in the upcoming school year as the country continued to grapple with the pandemic.
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