I got this comment from my post Curriculum change and understanding by design: what are they solving? It’s from a student with very legitimate complain, concern, and challenge. Sometimes we are so focussed on finishing the syllabus, following curriculum requirements that we forget what it’s doing to our learners.
As a student, I don’t like the new curriculum. Due to the new curriculum, we are bombarded with around 10 projects at a single time with the exact same deadline. We’re given a week or two to create all those projects and we’ve got 8 hours of school. We’re exerting all our after school hours into creating projects since we’re not always given project making time in class. It doesn’t hurt either that they put the deadline schedule in line with Long Test (Hell) week… I mean, seriously, we’re not really learning more from this. Maybe if the distribution of projects and such were spread out more, then the curriculum could work, but with the new curriculum we have no time for our extra curricular activities. I had to quit debate and pep just so I could work on my projects and have time for studying. It’s really draining. I’m even contemplating to cut my Chinese classes just so I could have around 8 hours of sleep a night. :/
Also, I agree with the “It’s the teaching, stupid”. Most kids in our level do better when the teacher is an effective teacher– we don’t need to like the teacher, we just need teachers who actually know how to teach. We don’t need some teacher who just tells us to open a book, read and understand or a teacher who reads verbatim from the books or powerpoint– we need a teacher who can really elaborate on a subject and actually answer our questions.
Here’s another comment from another student:
Those performance tasks.. they make every student’s life miserable… pinapahirapan ng performance tasks ang mga buhay ng estudyante.. at isa na ako dun… ayoko ‘tong curriculum!!! para sa akin mas gusto ko yung dati… hindi naman kailangan palitan ang curriculum… hindi ito ang solusyon… may iba pang paraan… imagine… minsan sabay-sabay ang mga performance tasks na ibinibigay sa amin.. nahihirapan kami.. minsan sinasabay ang quiz.. sabay sabay halos lahat ng mga subject.. yung isa kong kaklase sabi niya: Di ba ang mga project binibigay at the end of the Quarter?? hindi sinasabay sa mga quiz, test etc. .. nahihirapan kaming mag study… Yun Lang Po.. I HOPE MANY PEOPLE WILL READ THIS
It’s nice to hear insights from children. It is also essential to listen to them. Still, remember that most children are into protecting themselves and maintaining their safe places. If possible, they’d rather stay at home, watch tv and rest.