Philippine Basic Education Curriculum free essay sample

A curriculum defines what the learner will learn and can possibly guide when the learner learns the information from the lesson. Why do we have a National Curriculum? In the Philippines, we have a national curriculum implemented nationwide in all public elementary and secondary schools. It is called the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC). The private schools have the option to enrich or modify the BEC as circumstances in their schools dictate. Why is it important that our country follow a national curriculum? Some of our students are very mobile. Sometimes in the course of the school year ,they change residence and transfer to another school. Furthermore, the DepEd uses the national curriculum as the standard for assessing your performance and the performance of your pupils. There must be only one standard for all. History of Restructured Curriculum As we all may know, there were other education acts before the 1980’s that influenced earlier national curricula. We will write a custom essay sample on Philippine Basic Education Curriculum or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The National Elementary School Curriculum (NESC) implemented from 1984 to 2002 and the New Secondary Education Curriculum (NSEC) implemented from 1991 to 2002. This serves as background information for the superior understanding of the present Basic Education Curriculum (BEC). Department of Education Culture and Sports (DECS) had conducted surveys and experimental programs which helped them revealed the deficiencies of the previous curricula implemented by the Department. In 1970’s, The Presidential Commission Study Philippine Education (PCSPE), Survey of the Outcomes of Elementary Education (SOUTELE), and the Experimental Elementary Education program (EEEP) discovered that our elementary students performed poorly especially in the 3R’s. Their studies went deeper and revealed the deficiencies in the curricula themselves. One of the findings revealed that the elementary school curriculum was overloaded starting from Grade One. The National Elementary School Curriculum (NESC) The 1983 National Elementary School Curriculum was deemed the answer to the problems revealed by the previously mentioned surveys. First, a comprehensive plan known as the Program for Comprehensive Elementary Education (PROCEED) was prepared. From this big program was derived the sector program known as the Program for Decentralized Educational Development (PRODED). With assistance from the World Bank, PRODED encompassed several reform measures to improve elementary education. In the implementation of the NESC, mastery learning was emphasized. The students were expected to acquire the required competencies with at least 75% mastery. In other words, a child must be able to answer at least seven (7) out of ten questions in a formative test. The New Secondary Education Curriculum (NSEC) When the first batch of students who went through the NESC graduated, the Bureau of Secondary Education (BSE) implemented the NSEC in the schools. Of course, like the NESC, it had to undergo field try-outs and on the basis of the results, was revised and finalized.