Marcos tells Angara to improve teaching of Philippine history
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has instructed incoming Education Secretary Sonny Angara to reinforce the teaching of Philippine history in schools, which has been absent from the high school curriculum since the K to 12 curriculum was introduced in 2013.
Marcos also said he discussed the failure of the K to 12 curriculum to improve students' employability to Angara, who championed K to 12 as the principal author and sponsor of the Senate bill that became Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.
''One thing I asked of him was to please teach our children Philippine history, because I have seen my children's workbooks, and there's very little said about the history of the Philippines,'' Marcos said in an ambush interview in Sulu on Friday.
Angara earlier said that the president told him to change the approach of teaching history in schools to focus less on memorization, according to a June 3 interview on GMA's Unang Balita.
Marcos, who earlier this year dismissed calls for his family to return their ill-gotten wealth as “propaganda," reportedly told Angara he wants history lessons to be discussed comprehensively.
"May binanggit sya about history... 'Yung hindi ba 'yung hindi naka-focus masyadosa memorization, pero kung hindi sa pag-uunawa o pag-iintindi sa mga nangyari talaga, kung bakit nangyari yun. And making history interesting for our young people," Angara said.
(He mentioned something about history... In which we should not focus so much on memorization, but more on understanding or comprehension of what happened. And making history interesting for our young people.)
For years, teachers behind the High School Philippine History Movement have campaigned to bring back the teaching of Philippine history in high school after the K to 12 curriculum moved the subject to grades 5 and 6.
The six-year knowledge gap that resulted from limiting Philippine History to grade school “becomes more pronounced when seen from the vantage point of higher education" as students generally did not retain their baseline knowledge, according to a 2024 study that interviewed college instructors.
In 2023, the Department of Education under Vice President Sara Duterte struck out the name “Marcos” from “Diktadurang Marcos” in the new Araling Panlipunan curriculum and defended the move as a routine review by curriculum specialists.
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While DepEd said teachers could still use the word “Marcos dictatorship” in their lessons, they also called for a “balanced” perspective in discussions about the administration of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. — a well-documented period of history characterized by widespread rights abuses and diminishing of basic freedoms.
Since assuming office, Marcos has publicly declared twice — once in his inaugural speech and again in his first State of the Nation Address — that he was not referring to history lessons when he suggested improving the content of educational materials.
RELATED: Nostalgic Marcos laments state of education, vows not to change history lessons
K to 12's unrealized goal
Marcos said on Friday that improving the employability of Filipino high school graduates was "one of two elements" that he discussed with the incoming DepEd secretary, whose appointment was announced exactly two weeks after Duterte's resignation.
While K to 12 was implemented to increase students' years of education at par with international standards, Marcos said that results show that graduates' employability has not improved. "So we have to do something else," he said.
Marcos said the government is considering to offer short-term "mini courses" for students taking up special programs, but this will require coordination with industries and the private sector, according to a Presidential Communications Office release on Friday.
Amid calls to overhaul the K to 12 curriculum, Angara has maintained that the program is already institutionalized through a law and that DepEd will continue its review of the K to 12 program under his leadership.
In February, Duterte said DepEd's target pilot test of the revised senior high school curriculum will take place in school year 2025-2026.
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