SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday pressed for the improvement of K to 12 learners’ proficiency in math and science to successfully foster innovation and aid the country’s post-pandemic recovery.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture said it is crucial to equip learners with strong foundational skills that will boost innovation, which is deemed crucial in economic recovery and building resilience.

While the Department of Education is currently streamlining the K to 12 curriculum, Gatchalian also cited the need to improve the quality of teachers and address issues hounding the spiral progression approach mandated in the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.

The spiral progression approach or the spiral curriculum exposes learners to a variety of topics and concepts which makes the curriculum crowded. For some, this concept is not conducive to teaching in depth or not helping students master the basic subjects.

In a workshop for teachers organized by Gatchalian and non-government organization Synergeia Foundation, it was revealed that there were few or no teachers who were trained to teach all the branches or areas of a subject.

Science teachers, for example, were only trained to teach in one area of expertise rather than the different branches such as Chemistry, Biology and Physics.

Senate Bill 2152 or the Teacher Education Excellence Act, principally authored and sponsored by Gatchalian, seeks to improve the quality of teacher education and training in the country.

The measure seeks to revamp the Teacher Education Council and improve the coordination among the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Professional Regulation Commission.

This will ensure the link and coherence between pre-service education and in-service education, and improve teacher education outcomes.