THE Supreme Court on Oct. 9 to affirmed the landmark education reform of the current century, Republic Act 10533 (Enhanced Basic Education Curriculum Act) or known as the K-12 program.
The ruling included the petition from several Filipino and Panitikan teachers who decried the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) order to remove Filipino and Panitikan from core subjects in every tertiary institutions’ curriculums.
The argument of those who decried CHED’s order is that Filipino tertiary graduates will lose their grasp at learning “our own” culture.
This is absurd because currently Filipino or Tagalog is a core part of the curriculum and Filipino children from ages 5 to 18, studying in public or private and sectarian or secular schools have to study Filipino grammar and literature until they graduate at the basic education phase.
The petitioners should examine their pedagogical methods in order to entice everyone to learn what they consider as “Filipino” language and literature.
Another argument is that there will be at least 10,000 Filipino and Panitikan teachers who will lose their jobs at the tertiary level. They will have to be demoted to the Senior High. This is selfish.
We should not let our educational system be stuck in the dinosaur age just because certain “groups” like these Filipino and Panitikan teachers will lose their jobs. (Joseph Solis Alcayde)