DepEd to intensify efforts to uplift educational standards in 2020
Published Jan 1, 2020 12:00 am
By Merlina Hernando-Malipot
The Department of Education (DepEd) vowed to intensify this year its efforts to achieve its goal of quality education for all Filipino learners.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones
(DEPED / MANILA BULLETIN) In a recent Facebook post, the education agency noted that the year 2019 saw “our gains in access and our shift to quality in basic education as we prepare our learners for the challenges of the 21st century.” Among the 2019 gains highlighted by DepEd is the continued implementation of its annual activities such as the National Festival of Talents (NFOT) which provides opportunities for learners from public and private secondary schools, as well as learners from the Alternative Learning System (ALS), to showcase their talents and skills through exhibitions of their products, services, and performances. Also among the noteworthy activities last year were the National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) which is conducted to provide a venue where students can demonstrate understanding of the importance of journalism by expressing it through different journalistic endeavors and approaches; and the Palarong Pambansa, which is an annual multi-sport event involving student-athletes from 17 regions of the Philippines. The year 2019 was also a year of firsts for other DepEd’s initiatives, such as the first regional assembly of education leaders in February, the first teenage pregnancy summit dubbed “Kapit-Kamay: Empowering the Youth to make Informed Choices” in August, and the first National Summit on the Rights of the Child in Education in November. This year, DepEd is expected to focus its efforts on two of its major initiatives to help ensure that no child is left behind when it comes to education: the Last Mile Schools program and the “Sulong Edukalidad.” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the Last Mile Schools program is a new budget item beginning 2020 that addresses the facilities needs of remote schools that have facilities gaps. While the DepEd is aggressively building schools and classrooms and providing them with furniture and equipment, she noted that “there are still schools that have not met the allocation criteria for various education inputs.” Data from DepEd showed that around 7,144 schools across the country have been identified as needing immediate support. Last Mile Schools is a two-year program. According to DepEd Undersecretary for Administration Alain del Pascua, the agency will be concentrating on this program in 2020 and 2021. “The two-year program will focus first on facilities, then on infrastructure - we’ll construct the schools first and after one year, the content such as furniture, textbooks, computers, electricity, and so on will come in.” DepEd is also expected to aggressively implement education reforms in line with its newly-launched “Sulong EduKalidad” initiative. In an earlier statement, Briones said the message in “Sulong EduKalidad” is that “addressing the challenge of quality will be a difficult and long-drawn process, and we need everyone’s support.” She underscored the need to “translate in the concrete at the school and classroom level” because “it is at the level of the school and the classroom that quality will ultimately depend.” Before 2019 ended, the quality of education in the country was highlighted following the results of the 2018 Programme for International Assessment (PISA) which showed how poorly Filipino learners fare in reading, mathematics, and science literacy. Briones said the DepEd “boldly decided to participate” in the 2018 PISA “despite anticipating a poor showing based on indications from our NAT performance” because “we want to find out our standing in global education, as we aim to globalize the quality of Philippine basic education.” Through the PISA result, Briones said DepEd wanted to “take advantage of an assessment designed and constantly updated by education experts around the world” and “have data for further study to complement our own national assessment.” As a response to the need to address the quality of education in the country, DepEd launched its “Sulong EduKalidad” initiative which centers on four pillars of aggressive reforms for quality: K to 12 curriculum review and update; improving the learning environment; teachers’ upskilling and reskilling; and engagement of stakeholders for support and collaboration. “Let me emphasize that interventions are already happening in the concrete,” Briones said. She also directed department undersecretaries and directors to conduct reviews on the use of the medium of instruction; to closely examine the emphasis of foundational competencies of reading and numeracy, especially in the early grades through a curriculum review; and to be more proactive in interacting with other units and the field to “ensure alignment of our national and system assessment with curricular goals and instructional and classroom assessment practices at the school/classroom levels.”
Education Secretary Leonor Briones(DEPED / MANILA BULLETIN) In a recent Facebook post, the education agency noted that the year 2019 saw “our gains in access and our shift to quality in basic education as we prepare our learners for the challenges of the 21st century.” Among the 2019 gains highlighted by DepEd is the continued implementation of its annual activities such as the National Festival of Talents (NFOT) which provides opportunities for learners from public and private secondary schools, as well as learners from the Alternative Learning System (ALS), to showcase their talents and skills through exhibitions of their products, services, and performances. Also among the noteworthy activities last year were the National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) which is conducted to provide a venue where students can demonstrate understanding of the importance of journalism by expressing it through different journalistic endeavors and approaches; and the Palarong Pambansa, which is an annual multi-sport event involving student-athletes from 17 regions of the Philippines. The year 2019 was also a year of firsts for other DepEd’s initiatives, such as the first regional assembly of education leaders in February, the first teenage pregnancy summit dubbed “Kapit-Kamay: Empowering the Youth to make Informed Choices” in August, and the first National Summit on the Rights of the Child in Education in November. This year, DepEd is expected to focus its efforts on two of its major initiatives to help ensure that no child is left behind when it comes to education: the Last Mile Schools program and the “Sulong Edukalidad.” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the Last Mile Schools program is a new budget item beginning 2020 that addresses the facilities needs of remote schools that have facilities gaps. While the DepEd is aggressively building schools and classrooms and providing them with furniture and equipment, she noted that “there are still schools that have not met the allocation criteria for various education inputs.” Data from DepEd showed that around 7,144 schools across the country have been identified as needing immediate support. Last Mile Schools is a two-year program. According to DepEd Undersecretary for Administration Alain del Pascua, the agency will be concentrating on this program in 2020 and 2021. “The two-year program will focus first on facilities, then on infrastructure - we’ll construct the schools first and after one year, the content such as furniture, textbooks, computers, electricity, and so on will come in.” DepEd is also expected to aggressively implement education reforms in line with its newly-launched “Sulong EduKalidad” initiative. In an earlier statement, Briones said the message in “Sulong EduKalidad” is that “addressing the challenge of quality will be a difficult and long-drawn process, and we need everyone’s support.” She underscored the need to “translate in the concrete at the school and classroom level” because “it is at the level of the school and the classroom that quality will ultimately depend.” Before 2019 ended, the quality of education in the country was highlighted following the results of the 2018 Programme for International Assessment (PISA) which showed how poorly Filipino learners fare in reading, mathematics, and science literacy. Briones said the DepEd “boldly decided to participate” in the 2018 PISA “despite anticipating a poor showing based on indications from our NAT performance” because “we want to find out our standing in global education, as we aim to globalize the quality of Philippine basic education.” Through the PISA result, Briones said DepEd wanted to “take advantage of an assessment designed and constantly updated by education experts around the world” and “have data for further study to complement our own national assessment.” As a response to the need to address the quality of education in the country, DepEd launched its “Sulong EduKalidad” initiative which centers on four pillars of aggressive reforms for quality: K to 12 curriculum review and update; improving the learning environment; teachers’ upskilling and reskilling; and engagement of stakeholders for support and collaboration. “Let me emphasize that interventions are already happening in the concrete,” Briones said. She also directed department undersecretaries and directors to conduct reviews on the use of the medium of instruction; to closely examine the emphasis of foundational competencies of reading and numeracy, especially in the early grades through a curriculum review; and to be more proactive in interacting with other units and the field to “ensure alignment of our national and system assessment with curricular goals and instructional and classroom assessment practices at the school/classroom levels.”