Teaching out of their depth

A grade 8 Science teacher in a private school recently admitted to her students that Biology was her field of expertise, thus she’s at a loss how to teach them Physics. Candidly, the teacher said that while she sees little problem teaching Earth Science, she would have to do more than review her college Physics textbook if she would be able to teach them anything regarding mass, velocity, speed, etc.

In the “spiral system” in place under hastily implemented K-12 program of the Department of Education (DepEd), students, as in the above case, have to take four different science subjects in a year. The set-ups in Math and in other subjects are more or less the same as in Science.This is very much different from the previous system wherein students take the whole year taking Physics or Algebra or Trigonometry. 

In another private school, an English teacher faces the same dilemma with the “spiral system” as she’d been forced to handle subjects that are not her forte. This dangerous situation of the “blind leading the blind” is surely happening in most schools all over the country because the K-12 program had been rushed by DepEd.

The K-12 Program is like the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of this and the future generation of Filipinos. Instead of improving the state of education in the Philippines, it has the potential to worsen it because of so many problems at the ground.

And what has DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro done?

Luistro’srecent plea for the graduates of the University of the Philippines (UP) to help in building schools nationwide missed the point completely. No.1, that many UP graduates have “return service” agreements in appreciation of the government funding their education. And more importantly, it’s not just the lack of classrooms that is ailing the Philippine education system, but a seemingly ill-conceived and haphazardly implemented K-12 Program.                                         

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Image by www.teachforthephilippines.org