Compact curriculum crucial to eliminating illiteracy

THE Second Congressional Committee on Education (EdCom 2) said decongesting the curriculum would play a major role in addressing the country's high illiteracy rate.

The committee issued the comment following a revelation that around 18 million Filipinos who graduated from high school were functionally illiterate, or who do not have higher-level comprehension skills, going beyond basic reading, writing and numeracy. EdCom 2 co-chairman and Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo said decongesting the curriculum implies reducing the number of subjects taught in schools. "The problem, really, is that we have already made school so difficult for students. We must be able to make the student again learn to love going to school ... and to do that, we must reduce the subjects in order to focus on foundational skills," Romulo said. Romulo said the Department of Education (DepEd) should conduct an assessment at the start of every school year to identify students with learning difficulties. Those struggling with lessons, he added, should be placed in a special tutorial class. Senate Basic Education Committee chairman Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian echoed Romulo's statement, saying special tutorials would help make underperforming students functionally literate by the time they graduate. He added that he personally encountered during field work a 15-year-old student who had difficulty reading a simple story and performing simple computation. Education Secretary Sonny Angara vowed to strengthen interventions that would improve learning among students. "DepEd is working to correct the mistakes of the past and prepare each kid to a strong future. Ensuring that every Filipino learner is functionally literate is a commitment we owe to our constituents," Angara said.