Tweaking the DepEd’s mandate to be responsive to the need of the times

The recent news of President Marcos’ appointment of Sen. Sonny Angara as education secretary has elicited reactions from various sectors that particularly deal with the need to improve the functioning of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Philippine educational system.

For one, according to Chito Salazar who is the president of the Philippine Business for Education, there is a need for the designation of an education czar who will synchronize the functions of the DepEd, Commission on Higher Education, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority in dealing with the “learning crisis” among the country’s schoolchildren.

In the case of the DepEd, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers has commented that the proposed K-10 curriculum merging social studies or Araling Panlipunan (AP) and music, arts, physical education and health and the addition of new topics will result in limited teaching hours and consequently shallow discussion. Over the years, many have also observed that the social studies program has unduly focused more on history than other AP disciplines like political science, economics, geography, sociology, and anthropology.

Considering the need of the times, we also have to focus on geography—a discipline that historically has not been given enough emphasis in the teaching coverage of social studies. Our pressing problems in the West Philippine Sea and the diminishing supply of land are concerns that are covered by the study of geography. We need to inculcate in our pupils and students topophilia or love of place that will make them conscious of the need to defend our terrestrial and especially our contested maritime territories. Geography teaches us that our country is actually a “water world” where our marine waters within our territorial baselines are five times the area of our terrestrial domain. It is noteworthy that since 2019, the Department of Science and Technology has designated geography as a priority science and technology course and offers employment opportunities in geographic information system analysis, disaster management, climatic research, environmental management, and travel journalism. The related twin disciplines of sociology and anthropology also need more coverage in AP, particularly among the impressionable ages of seven to 10.

As we wait for the fruits of value education among our young and amid the urgency to catch up with the development of first-world countries, the government should embark on a more intensive migrant labor reintegration so that the economy can profit immediately from the labor of Filipinos.

Meliton B. Juanico,
[email protected]