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Analysis:
Millennium Curriculum Promotes `Pedagogical Terrorism'

The Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) is promoting the 2002 Curriculum which would mean less work for teachers. If the proposal pushes through, elementary and high school students will only take up five subjects instead of seven. Should this be good news for everyone?

BY DANILO ARAÑA ARAO
Bulatlat.com

Secretary Raul S. Roco, upon assuming his post to head the Department of Education, Culture and Sport (DECS), promised to institute reforms including curbing corruption that has tarnished the agency’s image. His agenda was therefore welcomed with much anticipation and many teachers thought DECS was entering a new era.

Roco’s curricular reform, however, promises to be a thorn in his leadership of the education department and could alienate him particularly from organized educators.

Various teachers and youth groups strongly oppose the proposed 2002 Curriculum, also known as the Millennium Curriculum. Consequently, they vow intensified protest actions in the coming days to articulate their demand to junk it. (The curricular reform was actually originally conceived by former DECS Secreary Andrew Gonzalez but Roco himself is pushing for it.)

In a nutshell, the proposed Millennium Curriculum seeks to integrate five “core learning areas” into one subject called “Pag-SIKAP.” The latter stands for Pag - Araling Pagpapahalaga (Homeroom); S - Sining (Arts and Music); I - Information and Communication Technology (ICT); K - Kultura, Kalusugan at Kabuhayan (Culture, Health and Livelihood); AP - Araling Panlipunan at Araling Pangkatawan (Social Studies and Physical Education).

This means that under the proposal, elementary and high school students will have an integrated curriculum composed of only five subjects, namely English, Filipino, Mathematics, Natural Science and Pag-SIKAP.

Class hours devoted to subjects like Social Studies that will be integrated to Pag-SIKAP will be cut by almost half on a weekly basis. At the same time, class hours for Math, Science, Filipino and English will be increased by one-and-a-half hours weekly.

For example, a Grade IV student in one week will take up five hours of Math, five hours of Science, five hours of Filipino, six hours and 40 minutes of English, and five hours of Pag-SIKAP. This means that the five “core learning areas” like Social Studies within Pag-SIKAP will only be allotted one hour each.

Values Education abolished

Under the proposal, the subject Values Education will be abolished and integrated to the five subjects.

Such proposed features led the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) to conclude that the Millennium Curriculum only streamlines the curriculum. While it is supposed to provide basic skills, the proposed curriculum sacrifices other aspects that would comprise wholistic education for students.

For its part, the University of the Philippines (UP) chapter of the Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND-UP) argues that the proposed Millennium Curriculum amounts to “pedagogical terrorism.” The latter term was used to refer to government’s clandestine efforts to mold the minds of students and teachers into accepting the current state of affairs.

CONTEND-UP stressed that instead of promoting a pedagogy that enlightens and eventually liberates, the government is pushing for a pedagogy that oppresses by reducing teaching hours for important subjects like Social Studies. The promotion of critical thinking among elementary and high school students, therefore, becomes threatened in the proposed curricular changes.

ACT stressed that the government only wants to design an education program during a period of limited or zero growth in the public budgetary allocation to education as a whole. No less than the education department admits that the per capita expenditure for basic education only amounts to P4,809.11 annually, or only P13.36 per day.

According to ACT, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) also argued, “The elementary curriculum…is overcrowded…with…as many as seven subjects per day. Having to cover too many subjects limits the extent to which teachers and students can focus on those basic skills critically important for good performance and success in the later grades. Research on student learning suggests that greater emphasis should be given to reading and communication skills and to understanding basic mathematical concepts.”

It is interesting to note that this does not conflict with the 1995-2005 Master Plan for Basic Education, which explicitly states that an objective of elementary and high school learning is “to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in the global economy.”

Globalist lines

The Millennium Curriculum, therefore, is simply the actualization of the objective to design basic education along globalist lines. While it may not be explicit in doing so, it cannot be denied that it adheres to the framework of globalization.

In the eyes of the government, students must be more attuned to the changing work environment, hence the focus on skills and knowledge necessary for future employment in transnational corporations or local big businesses. This is the reason why more time is allotted for English (the language of globalization), as well as Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

While it may be argued that the latter two subjects are necessary for progress, there is no guarantee that the teaching of skills and knowledge will be oriented towards nationalist goals and pro-people aspirations, especially considering the reduced teaching hours for Social Studies and the abolition of Values Education. Making these subjects “value-neutral” would mean that students will be left to decide on their own whether, say, to seek greener pastures abroad or to serve the people, bereft of any influence from the schools or the teachers concerned.

Government believes that less teaching hours for Social Studies, in particular History, is acceptable. After all, more time for such subjects may promote critical thinking that will only compromise the docility of the future members of the labor force.

Notwithstanding inherent weaknesses in the current educational system, in particular the teaching of subjects, Social Studies (or History for that matter) helps the students imbibe love of country and makes them appreciate the need to look at the past to know the context of current social realities.

To integrate this to other subjects like Homeroom and Practical Arts is very unthinkable if the goal is to teach students become responsible citizens. If, however, responsibility is equated with “blind obedience” to the State, then this becomes another matter altogether.

Any meaningful change in the curriculum for basic education, therefore, must take into account the needs of the country and the students’ future role in nation-building. It should promote critical thinking instead of docility and blind obedience. Bulatlat.com

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