BESRA for beginners

If the incoming Aquino administration is serious in overhauling the education sector, it doesn’t have to look far or reinvent the wheel. In 2005, the DepEd conceptualized the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA), which includes the proposal to add two more years to the elementary and secondary school cycle. Educators have lauded BESRA, an initiative based on extensive consultations and a combination of best practices in different schools, as a comprehensive and progressive program of DepEd. Its objectives are: 1. Universal adult functional literacy 2. Universal school participation and elimination of drop-outs 3. Universal completion of the full cycle of basic education schooling with satisfactory achievement levels 4. Total community commitment to attainment of basic education competencies for all The program was supposed to run from 2006 to 2010, but it was rendered ineffective due to the turtle’s pace of its implementation and entanglement in the bureaucratic web. (See Arroyo’s education record here) Nevertheless, a panel of luminaries that graced the forum “The Promise of Redemption: BESRA and the Need for Higher Education Reform" held at the University of the Philippines in Diliman in the run-up to the May 10 elections still held hope for the program. "There is no time to reinvent the wheel," said Prof. Ma. Cynthia Rose B. Bautista of UP’s College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. She added that BESRA is designed to address weaknesses in previous donor-driven projects that lacked follow-through, but DepEd has been failing so far due to the resistance of its employees to change and compartmentalized implementation. “All components of the BESRA are intended to help all Filipinos achieve higher levels of learning," said Prof. Allan B.I. Bernardo of De La Salle University’s Counseling and Educational Psychology Department. He said BESRA rests on the proper teaching of language (English, Filipino and the mother tongue), Math, Science, and citizenship. The focus is on improving student learning processes and outcomes through promotion of diverse classroom strategies instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. Teachers are the key agents of BESRA, but one of the problems is that it has been ineffectively trickled down to them Bernardo said. Prof. Dina Ocampo of UP Diliman’s College of Education said not all teachers are aware about the BESRA. Exploring this missing link, she was floored when a search of DepEd’s perpetual repository of memos turned up a pitiful six hits for BESRA. “Apparently, these were only given to those who were tasked to orient principals and coordinators, who in turn are supposed to enlighten teachers," she said. “If I were a principal, it would really help if I were knowledgeable about what the BESRA means, and how activities spring from, or connect with this reform framework," she added. Ocampo, who was recently named as Metrobank’s Outstanding Professor of the Year, listed the following areas of improvement for BESRA: 1. School-based management remains removed from BESRA because the teachers lack understanding on how to place learning at the heart of reforms. “How can this be reflected more meaningfully in my SIP (School Improvement Plan)? How can I look beyond the national test score achievement target?" she asks. 2. The NCBTS (National Competency Based Teacher Standards) worksheet, the professional development plan which led to the first ever consensus on what good teaching means, resulted in an "explosion of tools, forms upon forms of development plans, blasting out of various levels of the DepEd development, which ended up causing more confusion and time-wastage than clarity and ease." 3. The proposal for Multi-lingual Education (MLE) has many supporters, but DepEd order 74 which states that the mother tongue must be used for primary instruction by 2012 does not take into consideration the training needed by teachers to effectively make the transition from the mother tongue to other significant languages of learning. 4. The alternative learning system (ALS) is thwarted by lack of quality options such as the necessary inclusion and accreditation schemes for institutions to "provide opportunities for diverse learners, who may be those experiencing difficulties, or those with talents and capabilities that do not fall within the usual cadence and timing" of a traditional system. Ocampo says the largest gaps in BESRA are the issues of scope of the curriculum, and the proposal to increase the length of the Basic Education Cycle from 10 to 12 years. DepEd's Jess Mateo said the National Committee on Education for All is about to embark on a study on where to put the additional years. “I think the challenge right now is to convince the new leadership to embrace at least the fundamentals of BESRA and build on what we have done thus far," Mateo said. Ocampo agrees. “Besra, though not perfect, is a sound, research-based and innovative reform program that is the hope of redemption for learners in all community in all corners of our land," she says. – CARMELA G. LAPEÑA/YA, GMANews.TV RELATED LINK

Corruption in DepEd is a major challenge for Aquino When the agency that has the main responsibility for educating the youth is notorious for setting a bad example, what’s an incoming president to do?