DepEd advises caution on ‘bridge program’

Parents of incoming first year high school students in public schools with poor competencies in three core subjects — English, Math and Science — are advised to exercise caution in taking the option of forgoing the bridge program of the Department of Education (DepEd) for their children.

Bowing to public pressure, the department decided the other day to make the program optional. Parents were given the choice of enrolling their children in the bridge program or in the regular program for first year high school students.

"This comes with greater responsibility on the part of the parents and also for the students," Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus said, stressing that parents can forgo the program but their children may flunk at the end of the school year. He admitted though that parents’ opposition to the program was due to the department’s failure to explain the merits of the program.

"It’s largely because we failed in providing the information necessary for the parents to embrace the program," De Jesus said.

De Jesus explained that only the DepEd’s lack of resources prevented them from implementing the program to 99 percent of incoming first year high school students.

Strictly speaking, De Jesus pointed out that more than 99 percent or almost all students who took the first High School Readiness Test administered by DepEd last May 24 needed to undergo the bridge program.

He revealed that only .52 percent of 1.4 to 1.5 million students who took the test got a grade of 75 percent or higher. Moreover, no more than 50 percent made it above the 30 percent cutoff grade set by DepEd.

De Jesus said that this year, the DepEd will strictly implement a tougher "performance-based" grading system that does not allow the use of transmutation tables and sets the passing grade to 75 percent in all tests and examinations.

"The new grading system will be implemented. No more transmutation tables. No more continuous progression," De Jesus told The STAR.

The continuous progression policy of the DepEd allows teachers to pass students to the next level because too many "repeaters" in a grade level only exacerbate the classroom, teacher and textbook shortage, which has been DepEd’s perennial problem.