THE KABATAAN Party-list on Thursday criticized officials of the Department of Education for washing their hands off the incident where teenagers failed to answer questions about Philippine history.

The group hit Education Secretary Leonor Briones for her statement that the curriculum and the problems of the education system was passed on by the past administrations.

“Kung kritikal kayo, ano ang masasabi ninyo sa pagtanggal ng PH history sa high school at pag-waterdown nito sa elementary? Kung ‘di kayo sumasang-ayon, bakit hindi ninyo inayos ang curriculum? ‘Wag tayo maglokohan kasi ayon sa K-12 Law, DepEd ang gumagawa ng curriculum,” Kabataan Party-list National President Raoul Manuel said.

The Kabataan Party-list filed House Bill 8621 seeking to bring back Philippine history in the high school curriculum.

The youth group cited the claim of DepEd Undersecretary Anne Sevilla that their focus is to develop critical thinking among learners rather than trivia-based knowledge.

“Kung focus ninyo ang critical thinking, bakit hindi ninyo maayos na naituturo sa mga estudyante ang pagiging kritikal tungkol sa Martial Law sa curriculum? Bakit may mga estudyanteng naniniwala na bayani si Marcos? Bakit nabibiktima ng fake news ang mga bata?” Manuel said.

“Paano nga naman huhubugin ang critical thinking kung higit dalawang taon nang sarado ang kalakhan ng paaralan? Tambak-tambak na requirements ang inaabutan ng kabataan pero ‘di natitiyak na ligtas, abot-kaya at de kalidad ang edukasyon. Dapat mas marami pang paaralan ang tulungang magbukas na!” he added.