SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian confirmed the Senate Committee on Finance accepted his recommendation to set aside an allocation for the training of teachers for the MATATAG K to 10 curriculum rollout.

Under the Senate finance panel’s committee report on the General Appropriations Bill, P1.5 billion was allocated to train teachers for the MATATAG K to 10 curriculum, which will roll out in phases starting School Year 2024-2025 for Kindergarten, Grades 1, 4, and 7.

“One of our most important recommendations is for our teachers’ training for the MATATAG curriculum. We recommended P1.7 billion to train our teachers in the rollout of the MATATAG curriculum starting School Year 2024-2025 and P1.5 billion was allotted, which will train more or less 200,000 teachers in Key Stage 1 and other grade levels,” said Gatchalian, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.

Gatchalian described the MATATAG K to 10 curriculum as one of the low-hanging fruits to help improve learners’ performance.

Prior to the launch of the MATATAG K to 10 curriculum, experts pointed out the K to 12 basic education curriculum is too congested which prevents learners from mastering essential competencies such as literacy and numeracy.

Results of large-scale international assessment like the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment showed Filipino learners failing to master basic competencies.

Out of 79 countries that participated in the 2018 PISA, the Philippines ranked lowest in Reading and second to the last in Mathematics and Science.

The result of a two-year study, the MATATAG K to 10 curriculum retains only 3,600 competencies from over 11,000 in the previous curriculum, a reduction of almost 70 percent.

According to the Department of Education, the MATATAG K to 10 curriculum focuses on foundational skills such as literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills. The curriculum also features peace competencies.

Gatchalian also urged the Teacher Education Council to align teacher training and education to the MATATAG K to 10 Curriculum.

Under the Excellence in Teacher Education Act, the TEC was revamped to strengthen the coordination between DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Professional Regulation Commission, and ensure the coherence between pre-service and in-service teacher education and training.

The TEC is also mandated to set basic requirements for teacher.