By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz & Butch Fernandez
The House of Representatives has endorsed for President Duterte’s signing into law the measure institutionalizing the teaching of Good Manners and Right Conduct (GMRC) and Values Education among elementary and secondary students.
This after the House and the Senate ratified late on Wednesday the bicameral conference committee report that married both chambers’ versions of the bill.
If enacted into law, the new curriculum shall focus on the basic tenets of GMRC, such as caring for oneself, giving concern for others, according proper respect to people, upholding discipline and order, cultivating sincerity, honesty, obedience and, above all, love for country.
Values Education shall be an integral and essential part of the DepEd’s K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum and shall encompass universal human, ethical and moral values, among others.
It shall foster among students the basic tenets of the observance of respect for oneself, others and our elders; intercultural diversity; gender equity; ecology and integration of creation; peace and justice; obedience to the law; nationalism and global citizenship; as well as the values of patience, perseverance, industry, honesty and integrity; and good faith in dealing with other human beings; among others.
Under the measure, the DepEd shall be mandated to carry out the appropriate training for teachers and educators on GMRC and Values Education, and provide them with adequate and relevant instructional materials in order to develop and enhance their capacity to teach the subject.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, one of the authors of the measure in the House, said there is a need to strengthen the common core values and inculcate universally acceptable moral standards among the Filipino youth.
He said it is important to introduce, and teach, etiquette and moral uprightness to students during their formative years to preserve the values, and identity, of Filipinos.
“The institutionalization of GMRC and Values Education in our education curriculum will greatly contribute to the development of a national moral uprightness program of the country, which is a key factor in nation-building. This measure is vital to prevent perennial problems of the society like corruption, crime and illegal drugs,” Cayetano said.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, on Wednesday said, “The core of this measure is to create a ‘space’ in every school day of every learner in K to 12 to be taught on, and to learn about values.”
Gatchalian, who headed the Senate bicameral conference panel and sponsor of the bill, added that “when this bill becomes a law, our children will be taught GMRC and Values Education with the same amount of time that they are taught math, science, English and other core subjects.”
The chief sponsor of the measure in the House of Representatives, Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo, on Wednesday expressed elation that the measure will soon institutionalize the return of GMRC education.
GMRC was removed as a regular subject when the K to 12 curriculum was implemented in 2013. Instead, it was integrated in ESP and other subjects, like Araling Panlipunan.
GMRC will be taught as a separate subject from Grades 1 to 6, and integrated in the daily learning activities of kindergarten pupils.
Values Education will also be taught as a regular subject from Grades 7 to 10, and integrated in current subjects in Grades 11 to 12.
Gatchalian said GMRC and Values Education are important in shaping the character of the future generations of Filipinos, but the teaching of these subjects was neglected in the past years.
“In approving the bills, we will not only return the teaching of these subjects but we will also fill the gap [created] when they were neglected,” Gatchalian said in Filipino.
The measure also mandates the inclusion of character-building activities, such as role-playing in the classroom, community immersion, teacher-parent collaborations, school-initiated values formation and other forms of experiential learning.
To ensure that teachers handling the subject have the necessary expertise, the bill gives preference to teachers with the certification, diploma, and training on values education and allied disciplines.
Currently, 70 percent to 90 percent of teachers teaching Values Education are not certified to teach the subject.
Gatchalian also emphasized that GMRC and Values Education will not be an additional cause of curriculum congestion, one of the biggest pain points in the implementation of the K to 12 program. A congested K to 12 curriculum led to students’ insufficient mastery of basic competencies.
He was grateful that Congress recognizes the responsibility of the State to shape the character of the next generation of Filipinos, even as he acknowledged the support of the Senate bills principal authors—Senate Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri; and Sens. Joel Villanueva, and Panfilo Lacson, who, he said, “made it their advocacy to mandate the institutionalization of GMRC and Values Education in the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum, as well as Sen. Risa Hontiveros for her invaluable contribution when we threshed out several issues during the bicameral conference.”
“We need to teach GMRC in our kids’ formative years, so they can develop good habits at a young age. This is how they do it in Japan, and the kids there are unbelievably responsible,” Zubiri said.
“Our kids are growing up in a period of great technological change. Technology can be a wonderful tool for learning, but it can also stunt their moral development,” Zubiri added. “Values Education remains the domain of the family and the school. This is why we need a strengthened Values Education program, and why we need the return of GMRC in our schools.”
Image credits: Nonie Reyes