DepEd To Pilot K-10 Curriculum In 35 Schools

The Department of Education (DepEd) will commence next week the pilot implementation of the revised Grade 1 to 10 curriculum dubbed “MATATAG” in 35 schools across the country.

MATATAG stands for “Make the curriculum relevant to produce job-ready, Active and responsible citizens; TAke steps to accelerate the delivery of basic education services and provision facilities; TAke good care of learners by promoting learner well-being, inclusiveness learning, and positive learning environment; and Give support for teachers to teach better,” according to the DepEd.

On a list released on Sunday, Sept. 17, the agency said the MATATAG Curriculum would be pilot-tested on Sep. 25 in schools in seven regions, including the National Capital Region (NCR), Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Visayas, Soccsksargen and Caraga.

Participating schools in the NCR are all located in Malabon City: Dampalit Integrated School, Santiago Syjuco Memorial School, Muzon Elementary School and Tinajeros National High School.

In CAR, the designated schools are Calafug Elemen-tary School in Apayao, Rizal Elementary School and Doña Aurora National High School in Baguio City and Lam-ayan Integrated School and Bineng National High School in Benguet.

Ilocos region’s designated schools are all in La Union: Cabaruan Integrated School, Caba Central Elementary School, Acao Elementary School, Casacristo National High School and Don Rufino Olarte Memorial National High School.

In Cagayan Valley, pilot schools include Cauayan City, Isabela’s North Central School and Isabela province’s Villa Teresita Primary School, Lanna National High School and Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo National High School.

Central Visayas’ pilot schools are Cebu’s Tindog In-tegrated School, San Fernando North Central Elementary School, Tabogon Central Elementary School, Dumanjug National High School and Liloan National High School.

Soccsksargen’s listed schools include Mlang Pilot Elementary School in North Cotabato and Sarangani’s Lamlifew Integrated School, Alegria Central Elementary School, Malalag National High School-Upo Annex and Alegria National High School.

Finally, Caraga’s pilot schools are Butuan’s Baobaoan Integrated School and Pedro Duncano National High School, Surigao del Norte’s Suyangan Elementary School and Socorro National High School, and Agusan del Norte’s Santiago Central Elementary School.

Earlier, the DepEd said the schools were “meticulously” selected based on their enrollment size and community socioeconomic status, “to create a well-rounded pilot program that reflects the diversity and complexity of the Philippine education landscape.”

Benchmarked on the “decongestion” of learning competencies, such as reducing subjects in the early grade levels to focus on foundational skills such as oracy and numeracy, the MATATAG Curriculum intends to improve students’ learning outcomes and help them succeed.

After the pilot tests this school year, the new curriculum will be implemented in phases: first in preschool

and Grades 1, 4 and 7 in all public and private schools starting SY 2024-2025; Grades 2, 5 and 8 in SY 2025-2026; Grades 3, 7 and 8 in SY 2026-2027 and Grade 10 in SY 2027-2028.

The mass training of teachers for the full implementation will begin next year.

The procurement process of textbooks and other learning materials has also commenced.

Performance-based bonus

The government should never delay the release of performance-based bonuses (PBB) for teachers and support personnel, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said over the weekend.

While the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said it had released P11.6 billion for the 2021

PBBs of more than 920,000 public school teachers, the ACT said the DepEd should ensure the timely submission of forms so that teachers and other personnel would never have to experience long delays.

“We demand we should never experience this longest delayed PBB. The DepEd should ensure to pass the forms on time. They should learn from their mistakes. Teachers and education workers deserve to be compensated on time,” Quetua said in a statement.

While teachers are expected to have their PBBs after a two-year wait, education support personnel would be facing further delays due to issues that require “re-validation,” according to the DBM.

It said it returned the documents for support personnel PBBs due to “duplicate entries, incorrect information on the months of service, and certain personnel not found in the DepEd’s Personnel Services Itemization and Plantilla of Personnel, among others.”

“It is already September of 2023, yet the PBB 2021 is still not released for the education support personnel. This has been delayed for a long time, and DepEd has not yet addressed the discrepancies,” Quetua said. “This is not the first time that the DepEd is implementing the Performance-Based Bonus and yet they continue to fail to release this on time.”

The ACT also stated that despite the recent statement of DBM that it had released P11.6 billion for the 920,073 beneficiaries of PBB 2021, teachers are still disappointed in the DepEd’s sluggish process of com-plying with the needed requirements.

The DepEd submitted the necessary documents for evaluation to the DBM from April to August this year.

The PBB is a top-up incentive given to government employees based on their performance and contributions to accomplishing their department’s overall targets and commitments. – With Elizabeth Marcelo