By Gabriela Baron
A teacher said Thursday, April 13, that the COVID-19 pandemic “worsened” the education crisis in the country.
This after the Commission on Human Rights released a study, revealing that pandemic graduates face difficulty finding jobs.
In a statement, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Partylist Representative France Castro said fresh graduates were finding it more difficult to land jobs because the pandemic “worsened” the “already sad state” of the country’s education system.
“Pinalala lang ng COVID ang matagal [nang] problema ng edukasyon sa Pilipinas lalo pa ng ipinatupad ang K-12 na nagsaksak ng sangkatutak na mga asignatura sa kurikulum pero tinanggal naman ang mga dapat na nalalaman ng mga bata tulad ng Araling Panlipunan at Filipino na magtuturo sana sa kanila ng kritikal na pag-iisip at kung paano ang pagharap sa kapwa,” Castro said.
“Now when the pandemic struck, this flaw was further aggravated because there are no more face-to-face classes, many students lacked ‘soft skills’ — or those related to empathy, creativity, resilience, and communication — as well as practical job skills,” Castro added.
The lawmaker called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to “overhaul” the K to 12 system to make it more appropriate to the Filipino youth as well as to the teachers.
K to 12 curriculum review
Meanwhile, for DepEd’s part, Spokesperson Atty. Michael Poa assured the agency is currently reviewing the K to 12 curriculum.
Poa stressed the DepEd “already recognized” the issues with employability of senior high school (SHS) graduates and teacher quality during its latest Basic Education Report in January.
“Steps to address such issues are already in the MATATAG Agenda, such as engaging with [Commission on Higher Education], [Technical Education and Skills Development Authority] and various industry partners to address the issue of skills mismatch in our SHS Program,” Poa continued.
“This forms part of the on-going review of the SHS Curriculum, which shall consider feedback from employers and studies on SHS employability,” he added.
Poa also assured that capacity-building for teachers is a priority of the Education department.
It is seen to address the following: quality of entry-level teachers; unfilled teaching and teaching-related positions; ancillary tasks assigned to teachers; unequal distribution of qualified teachers; teachers not teaching their SHS specialization; and poor skills in analysis, synthesis, and evaluation which are crucial and relevant to the emerging economy. – cf
