1.  The Department of Education is implementing this school opening the 2002 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC).

2.  It is the product of 16 years of study conducted under the various DepEd secretaries (Lourdes Quisumbing, Isidro Cariño, and Bro. Andrew Gonzalez). Starting 1995, intensive consultations were held with various stakeholders – the schools, parents, students, business, trade and industry, NGOs and the people in the Education Department who administer the education system on ground level.

3.  Almost immediately after assuming the post, the undersigned continued the consultations starting March 2001. The DepEd people consulted included experts, public and private school teachers, the 16 regional directors, 145 superintendents, at least 20,000 principals, and representative teachers of the different subject areas in different and year levels.

4.  The Philippine Commission on Educational Reforms (PCER), created on Dec. 7, 1998 through Executive Order No. 46, recommended the adoption of the restructured BEC and its implementation starting 2002.

5.  The BEC focuses on the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, science and patriotism. Values is integral to all the subject areas. Students can then be ready for lifelong learning. It seeks to cure the inability of students who cannot read with comprehension at grade 3 and worse, at grade 6.

6.  The BEC decongests the overcrowded curriculum.

7.  Integrative and interactive teaching-learning approaches are stressed. These are characterized by group learning and sharing of knowledge and experiences between teachers, between teachers and students and among students. For instance, under the old curriculum, English teachers prepared lesson plans for English and values teachers prepared for values education. Under the BEC, the English and Values Education teachers work together on their lesson plans.

8.  High school math shifts from the spiral system which introduced all math subjects in every level to the linear, sequential approach where only Elementary Algebra is taught in 1^st year, Intermediate Algebra in the 2^nd year and Geometry in 3^rd year.

9.  From only 1,418 participants when the training started in March 2002, some 491,000 public and private school teachers have been trained as of May 20. Another 1,500 teacher trainers were trained on HS math and they led the school-based trainings of Math teachers.

10.  Textbooks for the revised curriculum, worth some P1.4 billion, have been delivered, or are in the process of being distributed, to the different schools nationwide.

Although the budget allocated textbook funds only for Grades 1 to IV and for 1^st and 2^nd year high school, the DepEd will be able to provide textbooks for Grade 1 to IV and for 1^st to 3^rd year high school. This resulted from the substantial savings that DepEd was able to effect through its transparent approach in procuring school supplies and equipment.

11.  Many lesson plans to be used by the teachers have been prepared and produced. From 3 to 15 of June, there were additional training and preparation of lesson plans. Each H.S. math teacher will get lesson plans.

12.  All 16 regional directors have submitted the names of teachers trained, the teachers feedback after each training session, the training designs used by the regions, the training kit given to the teachers  and the weekly monitoring reports on the number of teachers trained.

13.  The adoption of the BEC is optional for private schools. Although more than 50% of private schools have joined.

14.  No teachers were lose his/her job. In fact, DepEd has hired 15,000 more teachers.

15.  The NETRC, the BEE and BSE, with the assistance of NEAP, will conduct a quarterly evaluation of the revised curriculum. School principals and supervisors were continuously monitor its implementation in their respective schools and divisions.

16.  Curriculum development is a dynamic process, and thus the restructured curriculum will continue to develop. Through school year 2002-2003, the BEC implementation will be monitored, improved and fine-tuned. Selected prototype lesson plans will be distributed.

17.  The BEC has received broad-based support from top educators and other authorities. Public school teachers, principals, superintendents and the regional directors have manifested support for the BEC. The whole DepEd will help implement the BEC.

18.  For information and compliance.