Teaching innovation should start in basic education – DepEd

By Merlina Hernando-Malipot

Learners can have a better understanding on the changes brought about by advance technologies if that is taught early, with the Department of Education (DepEd) urging that innovation in education should start at the grade school and secondary levels.

Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones
(DepEd / MANILA BULLETIN)

“Civilization can only move forward through innovation [that is why] we should start [teaching] innovation not in the university level, but in the basic education level,” said Education Secretary Leonor Briones during the recently-held 2020 Innovation Forum: Innovation in Basic Education hosted by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) at the PHIVOLCS Building, Diliman.

“The notion of innovation, the desire for knowledge, of creating something helpful out of what is going on around us have to be inculcated to our learners,” Briones said. “We have to change the way we teach our learners [and] we have to prepare them for a world that is drastically changing,” she added.

With the future uncertain due to the rise of advanced technologies, Briones cited the “Sulong EduKalidad” program – DepEd’s latest move to innovate Philippine education in response to the drastically changing world.

Briones also underscored the importance of the ongoing DepEd innovation in raising the quality of the country’s basic education to address the challenge to change the way learners are taught; to produce new breed of learners; to upgrade capacity of teachers; and to improve facilities and equipment.

The “Sulong EduKalidad,” Briones explained, focuses on four aggressive reforms in basic education which include K to 12 curriculum review and update; Improving learning environment; Teachers upskilling and reskilling; Engagement of stakeholders for support and collaboration.

Briones said that DepEd has also started changing its learners assessment approach from fact-based questions to real world problem solving and application.

For hist part, DOST Secretary Fortunato Dela Peña reiterated the agency’s support to DepEd’s advocacy of equipping Filipino learners 21st Century skills. “We support the two current programs of DepEd; the Last Mile Schools, which is more on access, and the very important Sulong EduKalidad, where I think these innovations in basic education will fit very well,” he added.