ACT Teachers Party-List has urged the Department of Education to include lessons which would enable students to effectively respond to pandemics in its revised curriculum.

The group aired its proposal in reaction to DepEd’s scheduled use of the Most Essential Learning Competencies, an abridged version of K to 12 program. MECLs would be taught through blended learning when classes resume on August 24.

Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said the Education Department will be reducing learning competencies by 60 percent, retaining only 5,689 which have been considered most essential from the original 14,171.

However, last August 1, the group criticized the use of MECLs, saying it lacked content that is relevant to the present health and economic crises.

“Where is Covid19 education in DepEd’s modified curriculum? Do the MECLs empower our communities? Will it help our students process and aptly respond to events around them?,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio raised in a statement.

“Education must reflect the world we live in and must be a promising weapon to allow all of us to surmount these crises,” he added.

Basilio also pointed out that aside from the methods that will be implemented to deliver the lessons, the content of the curriculum demands attention.

“More than ever, we need an education that is responsive to the capacities and needs of our people,” he said.

Recently, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones assured that blended learning is ready for implementation in different grade levels across the country.