Makabayan: Testing the Waters of a Revised Curriculum

Never in the history of the country's educational system has there been so much ballyhoo over a curriculum touted to raise the quality of learning among Filipino students. The Revised Basic Education Curriculum (approved by President Arroyo on 12 June 2003 for adoption by the Department of Education (DepED) and based on the 2002 BEC introduced by then Education Secretary Raul Roco) has reduced the old curriculum into five learning areas, namely, Filipino, English, Science, Mathematics (dubbed the "tool subjects") and Makabayan, instead of the previous eight. Makabayan, in particular, has elicited unfavorable response from different sectors more than two years ago when the DepED pilot-tested the new curriculum in all public schools nationwide.

Components

Makabayan, says a DepED executive summary, is envisioned to be a "laboratory of life" or a practice environment for holistic learning to develop a healthy personal and national self-identity. It says that this requires an adequate understanding of Philippine history and our politico-economic system, local cultures, crafts, arts, music, and games, and entails the use of integrated units of learning tasks which will enable the learner to personally process, assimilate, and systematically practice a wide range of values and life skills including work skills and work ethics.
   
Each of the five learning areas, the DepED says, addresses both the individual and social needs of the learners. But Makabayan will be "the learning area that lays the most stress on the development of social awareness, empathy, and a firm commitment to the common good."
   
Here is a list of the components of Makabayan as a subject area for elementary school according to the DepED document:

• Araling Panlipunan (AP)
• Sibika at Kultura (SK) for Grades 1, 2, and 3
• Heograpiya, Kasaysayan, at Sibika (HEKASI) for Grades 4, 5, and 6
• Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan (EPP) for Grades 4, 5, and 6
• Musika, Sining, at Edukasyong Pangkatawan (MSEP) for Grades 4, 5, and 6 (while for Grades 1, 2, and 3, MSEP is integrated in Sibika at Kultura)
• Good Manners and Right Conduct (GMRC) which is also integrated in all subject areas.

For high school, Makabayan has the following components:

• Araling Panlipunan (AP) or Social Studies
• Philippine History and Government (first year)
• Asian Studies (second year)
• World History (third year)
• Economics (fourth year)
• Teknolohiya at Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan (TEPP, formerly Technology and Home Economics or THE)
• Musika, Sining, at Edukasyong Pangkatawan at Pangkalusugan (MSEPP, formerly Physical Education, Health and Music or PEHM)
• Edukasyon sa Pagpapahalaga (EP, formerly Values Education)

Pros

Makabayan, says a senior DepED official, is designed to help learners develop better interpersonal skills, vocational efficiency, and problem-solving and decision-making skills based on the other elements of the revised BEC-patriotism, experiential learning, and self-sufficiency. 

"Our vision is to equip the students with life skills so that they become self-developed persons. These elements can also be found in the existing curriculum but we just wanted to strengthen them through RBEC," says Dr. Fe Hidalgo, education undersecretary for programs. "To actualize a gracious life in our changing world, Filipino learners need an education system that empowers them for lifelong learning, enabling them to be more competent in learning even when they are left to themselves."

She argues that our old curriculum has so many offerings that are squeezed into six years for the elementary level and four years for high school-a total of 10 years-the shortest period devoted to basic education.  Other countries have 12 years, she says.

Hidalgo adds that an overcrowded curriculum either hinders or delays the development of lifelong learning skills, given that the coverage of the subject matter tends to take priority over in-depth learning.

The subject areas in the new curriculum, says the DepED, are expected to respond to the individual needs of students. "Reciprocal interaction between student-teacher, among students, students-instructional materials, students-multimedia sources, and students-teachers of different disciplines is reinforced. The approach to the subjects is 'integrated.' Thus, Filipino and English, in addition to reading, writing and grammar, include literature and current affairs," DepED officials say.

The new curriculum, they add, was made to improve the quality of teaching especially in math and science. They argue that more stress on math and science subjects is needed because Filipino students have been doing poorly in international tests of competence in these two areas.

Cultural Center of the Philippines President Nes Jardin, commenting on the new curriculum and on the Philippine cultural education plan, says that even if the DepED curriculum is not perfect, it has definitely improved because of the Makabayan learning area.  "In our plan, while we're waiting for the completion of the index of knowledge and the identification of minimum learning competencies, we can take a look at the Makabayan curriculum and see how this [cultural education] can be improved."  He says, however, that a lot of Makabayan teachers need to be given additional training and be updated on their knowledge of Philippine arts and culture.

Cons

At first blush, the restructured curriculum and the teaching of Makabayan can be viewed as a shot in the arm, so to speak. But how could so many voices go against the good intentions of well-meaning DepED officials? How has the new curriculum come to draw flak from teachers, parents, textbook publishers, members of the academe, and the media?

Felice Yeban, a social studies associate professor at the Philippine Normal University (PNU), said that there was a need to reform the old curriculum, but that she was unsure if the RBEC was the answer to the problems of our education system. "It seemed the DepED was in a rush to implement the new curriculum."  She contended that the time allotment for the tool subjects had been extended at the expense of the Makabayan subject. "Any increase in the time allotment for a certain subject will result in the reduction of the time allotment for other disciplines," Yeban says.

But the perceived 'demotion' and undermined status of the subject area and the new curriculum drew the harshest criticism and disgust from the media.

Dean Jorge Bocobo, writer and an outspoken critic of the RBEC, says the new curriculum does not prescribe science as a formal subject in the first two grades of elementary school.  He says because the 2002 BEC outrageously deletes the science subjects in these grade levels, there's a 33 percent reduction in grade school science. For high school, all four science subjects (earth science, biology, chemistry and physics) have suffered massive reductions of 25 per cent in allocated classroom time, from 80 minutes to 60 minutes daily, effectively cutting out essential lab study time, he says.

Writing for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine Commentary, Bocobo says Makabayan is "a congeries of eight different subjects embodying both 'values education' and 'nationalism' as well as subjects like Music and Physical Education, traditionally considered extracurricular." He goes as far as saying that "Makabayan was politically important to Roco and President Arroyo because they have more teachers in them, with lower pay scales and skills compared to math and science teachers."

Bocobo says the science subject in Grades 1 and 2 was abolished to make room for a "politically expedient" subject like Makabayan. And so, he says, "with every year that passes, the graduating classes of public elementary schools will have had less and less training in science and more and more of the Makabayan vacuousness from the religious right and the nationalistic left.  It is the price that has been paid to put in the supersubject Makabayan that keeps the curriculum crowded and unfocused."

Taking a dig at the former education secretary, Bocobo adds that Roco introduced Makabayan because teaching it would imply "part-time teachers, lots of them, that Roco thought would be invaluable in the 2004 elections (since the teachers are Comelec's indentured servants at the polls)."

Eva Mari Salvador, officer-in-charge of the cultural exchange and communication services of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), in an article she wrote which was posted on artsentralmanila.com, an on-line magazine on Philippine art, says many teachers of Makabayan have expressed having very limited knowledge of the art and culture subjects they teach. "One teacher was allegedly asked to teach music because she was heard singing with a videoke. Others assigned to remote places have been teaching children of indigenous people for years and hardly knew their traditions," she says.

And here's one for the books:  Makabayan is a "bullshit brainwashing subject of little use to kids," says Inquirer columnist Manuel L. Quezon III.

If one were to hear it straight from the Makabayan teachers, it wouldn't be much of a surprise either. Romella Villariaz, a youngish high school teacher in Makabayan at the Mary Mother of God Parochial School in Bayanan, Muntinlupa City, says the introduction of the subject area has been in the long run ineffectual. "Noon kasi, we had more time for laboratory. Mas nag-eenjoy ang mga bata noon. Makabayan has somehow made all the lectures boring, because I don't know how else to call it. Because Makabayan should be taught in Filipino and then in English, we had to rewrite our lesson plans, and most of the time, inuulit namin 'yong mga laboratory manuals and other materials had to be translated from English to Filipino."

Fortunata D. Lizardo, school coordinator for HEKASI at the Alabang Elementary School and a teacher for more than 37 years, shares her sentiment on the "demotion" of social studies under Makabayan. "Naging parang walang kuwenta na ang pagtuturo ng social studies. Walang weight na ibinibigay halimbawa sa HEKASI, dahil puro pahapyaw na lamang ang pagtalakay sa isang subject matter. Most topics are not discussed in full, dahil mismong social studies ay nawala bilang isang major academic subject. Kaya kawawa ang mga bata."

Dragged in Controversy

The 'demoted' status of Makabayan has also been dragged in the controversy surrounding the language in which it is to be taught in schools, making other members of the academe raise hell.

A position paper posted on the Internet by the UP Sentro ng Wikang Filipino, and the Filipino Departments of UP Diliman, De La Salle University, PNU, and the Ateneo de Manila University, and the Pambansang Samahan ng Wika had quite a mouthful: "Hunyo 2002, ipinatupad naman ang binagong Basic Education Curriculum. Nitong Pebrero 2003, ipinahayag ang pagbalik sa Ingles.  At ngayon, wala pa ngang isang taon ang bagong kurikulum, patapos pa lamang ang pagsulat ng mga teksbuk sa bagong asignaturang Makabayan, nagsasanay pa lamang ang mga guro, ay may paiiralin na namang patakaran. Ano ang batayan ng mga pagbabagong ito? Kailangan bang maging biktima ang ating bayan, lalo ang mag-aaral at guro, sa mga pabagu-bagong isip, kapritso, at sumpong ng ating mga pinunong bayan?"

The group that made the position paper favored teaching content subjects (asignaturang pangnilalaman) in the language which the students were most familiar with: "Kung hindi natuto ang mga estudyante natin sa Ingles, matututuhan kaya nila ang mga araling itinuturo sa wikang ito?  Madaling hulaan ang sagot.  Sa ginanap na Third International Math and Science Study o TIMSS, halimbawa, isa ang Pilipinas sa mga nangulelat. Ebidensiya ang TIMSS na inutil ang Ingles sa mabisang pagtuturo at pagkatuto ng agham at matematika."  That goes for Makabayan too.

Indeed, the introduction of Makabayan and a new curriculum is a hard nut to crack. "Cultural mapping and a sense of their real environment," says artsentralmanila.com, count among the many challenges facing teachers of this subject area on top of their many other adversities-budget, lack of classrooms and instructional materials, reallocation of material resources, ad infinitum.

The private and public education system, however, still refers to the DepED as to what to teach our students and how to teach it, and what they should have become when they step out of school-equipped with the competencies, skills and knowledge needed in today's world. Clearly, given the current perspective on the quality and state of Philippine education, the DepED will have to work harder by avoiding the pit of rushing changes in the curriculum and in its policies-and maybe calm a brewing tempest of controversy by gaining the trust of all its stakeholders, the most important of them, the children who are to become the country's leaders.