DepEd's Matatag Curriculum: Early Wins for Students, Heavy Load for Teachers

MANILA, Philippines — A wide-ranging evaluation of the Department of Education's Matatag curriculum has delivered a split verdict on the country's biggest education reform in years: students in second grade are surprisingly leaping ahead with learning gains, but teachers are bearing the cost of a reform that came with insufficient support. Students in 70 pilot schools across seven regions showed large, statistically significant improvements in reading, math and values education during the reform's first year (2023-2024). But teachers saw their physical wellbeing decline as they worked extended hours preparing lessons, often spending their own money on classroom materials that arrived late or incomplete. In a study released December, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies evaluated schools organized into 35 matched pairs, combining curriculum expert reviews, teacher surveys, classroom observations and student assessments. Researchers tracked how the reform moved from design through teacher practices to student outcomes. The findings paint one of the first full pictures of whether DepEd's new curriculum for Kinder to Grade 10 — launched under then-DepEd Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte in 2023 — has been leading to improvements on student competency, especially in the core subjects of mathematics, science and reading. The authors of this study are Michael R.M. Abrigo, Edmar Esmama Lingatong, Erwin Doroteo Justien C. Daga, Gerald C. Apostol, Louie P. Cagasan Jr., Dianne Stephanie A. Gavan, Jesusa L. Paquibot, Tania Dew S. Perez and Charlotte Marjorie L. Relos The Matatag curriculum is implemented in phases, beginning with an initial pilot phase in 2023 that targeted students in Kindergarten and Grades 1, 4, and 7 at select schools. Decongested curriculum leads to gains DepEd's redesign of the curriculum came as international assessments showed Filipino students lag behind their peers in similar economies by five to six years of schooling — a gap that researchers blame on what happens inside classrooms rather than whether children can get into school. The new decongested curriculum is based on the premise that cramming too many competencies in too little time — as seen in the old K-10 curriculum — prevented students from mastering the basics. "First-year results reveal substantial promise alongside implementation challenges requiring attention. Most notably, Grade 2 students in pilot schools demonstrated large, statistically significant learning gains across all subjects, including MAKABANSA, GMRC, Reading, Mathematics, and Language," the study said. Large leaps in students' literacy and numeracy, as well as values education, are "particularly striking given that curriculum reforms typically show minimal effects during initial implementation years," the study read. But the gains came at a cost. Teachers' physiological well-being declined by "0.77 standard deviations," driven by extended work hours for lesson planning and assessment preparation outside the actual hours they clock at school. Books missing, links broken More than 20% of teachers surveyed between March and May 2024 said unavailable or poor-quality learning resources hindered their ability to teach. The problem affected schools across the board, regardless of which curriculum they were using. Students have no books in some subjects (e.g., Filipino, TLE, MAPEH). In some cases, there is only one book per section. Large schools reported books available but incomplete or late. Lesson exemplars contained broken links or content that didn't match the competencies outlined in the curriculum guides. Teachers coped by developing their own materials, downloading resources when internet connectivity allowed, or turning to video-sharing applications. The pilot curriculum required more improvising than the current curriculum, which came with more familiar and available materials. "Teacher preparedness was another concern, as training programs were often insufficient to address the complexities of the new curriculum, particularly in merged subjects and advanced pedagogical methods," the study read. The pre-implementation training for the Matatag curriculum lasted only three days, which was shorter than the five-day training for the previous K-12 reform, according to the study. Teachers reported that this was not enough time to "study, process, and clarify" the new features. While the decongestion of the curriculum was achieved "in theory," the researchers noted that some subjects experienced a reorganization of competencies that did not significantly reduce the actual instructional burden on educators. This decongestion often appeared to be superficial, according to the researchers. This is because in some cases, the mere regrouping of competencies in subjects like Filipino and Araling Panlipunan could actually result in a more congested workload when translated to actual classroom instruction. Mixed results Even as the curriculum was delivered to Grade 2 students, the gains varied by grade level. Grade 5 students showed improvements only in MAPEH and Science, with minimal gains in Mathematics and Filipino. Grade 8 students advanced in Science, Mathematics, MAPEH and TLE, though results swung more widely. What does this mean? The PIDS study noted that the nature of the curriculum itself — with a greater emphasis on foundation skills — is meant to generate stronger and more visible improvements at the earlier levels. It is also the result of "implementation realities encountered during the pilot year," the researchers wrote.