DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 19 August) – The recently launched “MATATAG Curriculum” of the Department of Education (DepEd) intends to address the lapses of the K-12 Program, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said Friday.
Speaking at the opening day of the three-day Philippine Book Festival at the SMX Convention Center Davao, Duterte said the “revised and improved” curriculum hopes to correct the flaws of the previous one that affected the writing and reading skills of students and contributed to learning losses.
She said the curriculum puts emphasis on basic competencies, including writing, reading, and comprehension after seeing “a painful decline in the ability of our young learners to read and write” over the past few years.
In a press release, DepEd said MATATAG means “MAke the curriculum relevant to produce competent and job-ready, active, and responsible citizens; TAke steps to accelerate delivery of basic education facilities and services; TAke good care of learners by promoting learner well-being, inclusive education, and a positive learning environment; and Give support to teachers to teach better.”
“Our direction is not only for our learners to possess the power of writing and reading, but, most importantly, for them to value this power as it could help them navigate life successfully,” Duterte said.
She added the agency focuses on rekindling the interest of the learners “in the written word through reading books and other materials that could ignite their curiosity, give space for their creativity, and nurture their intellect.”
She said DepEd also intends to offer accurate, responsive, and culturally relevant reading materials.
“Books and other related reading materials could change lives. And through books and other related and relevant reading materials, we want to change the lives of our learners,” she said.
She said the book festival is not only a gathering of “finest book writers, book readers and collectors, illustrators, agents, and publishers” but also paying “tribute to the richness of our culture, history, and language. Each piece of literature is a testament to the depth of Filipino thought, imagination, and narrative.”
“By promoting our homegrown authors, illustrators, and publishers, we not only give voices to stories that have been waiting to be told for so long—we also celebrate them,” she said.
Dante Francis M. Ang II, chair of the National Book Development Board (NBDB), said the festival features 132 publishers and more than 500 authors of different genres, including trade books, textbooks, comics, children’s books, and young adults.
He said the Davao leg of the festival gathered regional publishers that were not available in its Manila leg last June.“That’s important because I think DepEd is looking at regional procurement of their learning resources, and this is what NDBD is trying to promote – for our institutional buyers to look at our regional publishers because they have specialization that is not available from anywhere else in the Philippines,” he said. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
