SENATOR Robinhood Padilla urged the Department of Education to ensure that Philippine history be taught properly under the new Matatag Curriculum.

”I am very interested in the Matatag Curriculum and I want to ask how history should be taught under the new curriculum because history is very important for our young people for them to know where we came from because we will be stronger as a country if we know what is our origin,” Padilla said in Filipino.

The Matatag Curriculum seeks to decongest the current K to 12 Curriculum by reducing the number of competencies, focusing more on literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills for Kindergarten to Grade 7 pupils.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said that not all students could master the more than 100 competencies in 180 days.

As per DepEd standard, Pimentel said the students are measured quarterly and there should be intervention for those lagging behind as proposed in a bill filed by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.

Pimentel said the family should not be faulted for the failure of the student to learn or master the competencies.

“How many hours does a student spend in school? Six hours at the least. Those six hours must not be wasted. Even if it’s not complemented by home study or home tutoring, we should have measured the kid’s improvement in that six hours in school,” he said.