MANILA — The Department of Education's review on the K to 12 program is underway, Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said Wednesday.

Based on a recent Pulse Asia survey commissioned by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, 44 percent of Filipinos are dissatisfied with the K-12 system. This is higher than the 28 percent dissatisfaction rate in a 2019 survey.

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The agency had ordered a review of the Kinder to Grade 10 program before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s administration, Densing said.

"I believe they're now finalizing their assessment and will be proposing revisions any time soon," he told ANC's Headstart.

Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte has also ordered a review of Grades 11 to 12, Densing added.

"Hopefully we’ll have the immediate results as soon as possible," he said.

Densing said his personal opinion was English should be taught from Kindergarten instead of the mother tongue, which is mandated under the current curriculum.

"I would want to say we use regular English language as medium of instruction, with the mother tongue as an exception," he said. "Use mother tongue only as an exception in case that area is not really introduced to English."

Densing added that teachers should be trained yearlong instead of being given a week of seminars.

"Training teachers should be on a module basis. In other terms, there should be a yearlong program, but the modules would be given in tranches," he said.

"Based on the assessment being done right now, it's something we expect to hear from the evaluators of the K to 12 program."

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