there you go again!

The Department of Education is running out of ideas. In its simplistic mind, the solution to the poor showing of public school students is adding another year which they call interim "bridge". How many times will they try to force this down our throats? It has been suggested several times already and everytime was faced with a lot of opposition. Why not? Adding another year is not a solution. Au contraire, it will only prove to be another fatal mistake.

Today's editorial of the Inquirer narrates how parents and teachers reacted to the idea. I cannot blame them. I agree that the plan is indeed "unnecessary, unreasonable, discriminatory and oppressive."

I don't believe the DepEd is wanting of intelligent thinkers. What I do know is that it is full of red tape and corruption. But then, that is another story.

The real scenario is that with its suggested list of minimum competencies for each level, only about half is met. To illustrate, a grade one pupil should learn the minimum requirement for the grade level. This is not met but the child is promoted to Grade two. Naturally, the child cannot cope with the requirements of the level. Unfortunately, the teacher/s of the level will begin teaching the minimum competencies of this level. And this goes on until high school. By this time, the learning competencies the child should have learned has compiled just like the country's national debt.

If the Department is serious about upgrading the capacity of students to learn, it should instill programs that is designed to teach the students to learn. What about a tutoring program to ensure that the student learns what he/she should be learning in his/her grade level? But then, that would mean more resources, more teachers and more students willing to undergo said program. There are different ways to address the problem but I know that adding another year is definitely not one of them.