by: Loida S. De Joya
Teacher 3, Ricardo A. Pronove Elem. School
Magdalena Sub-Office, SDO Laguna
Seeking high-quality education is one of any country’s top goals and worries. Global leaders and educational systems are involved in an intricate and never-ending endeavor. This is because education plays a key role in both attaining national development and advancement as well as a nation’s economic growth. Thus, it follows that education plays a crucial part in bolstering the nation.
According to this theory, educators are in charge of influencing students’ learning. Being a human resource, they have the capacity to make a company successful in the modern world. As a result, teachers’ instructional activities must help students meet the established learning objectives in the classroom.
But, with the implementation of the MATATAG Curriculum, wherein the subjects of Araling Panlipunan (AP) and Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health (MAPEH) will be merged into one: Sibika, Sining at Kultura, Kagalingang Pangkatawan (SiKaP), teachers especially AP Coordinators are now raising their eyebrows. Initially, the Alliance of Concerned Citizens (ACT) concentrated on and examined the redesigned AP and MAPEH curriculum, recognizing that the two courses are important in fostering a sense of nationalism and national and cultural identity in students. And so, teachers are now asking: why merge these subjects where on their own, they both play different but crucial roles on the learning of pupils?
The answer still lies to be unknown, and so educators are wondering if this matter had been taken into proper consideration. Teaching AP is already arduous as it is, what more being the school’s AP coordinator. Although this task is not as inconvenient as other coordinatorships such as School Paper and School-Based Feeding Program, it still possess a responsibility that should not be taken for granted. Since today’s learners are not as geographically and historically knowledgeable like before, AP teachers and coordinators alike are exerting all their efforts in making sure that the needed competencies are well-mastered by the pupils. But unfortunately, the lack of interest on the part of the pupils play a major role on why test results in this subject are decreasing in number. And that is an evidence that public school teachers cannot deny.
Therefore, educators and AP coordinators all over the country are hoping that with the ongoing implementation of the MATATAG curriculum, issues affecting this subject will be taken into account. A country’s history and culture are relevant whether in the past or in the future, and so adequate consideration regarding these should always be prioritized.
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