The Department of Education (DepEd) has decided to drop “Science” from the roster of subjects

taken up by incoming Grade 1 pupils in line with its efforts to decongest the Basic Education
Curriculum and to make learning more enjoyable to young learners.”
Moreover, Education Secretary Armin Luistro argues that such steps were taken in accordance with the
K+12 curriculum, “based on the idea that we should be taking the students where they are.”
Luistro attempted to give DepEd’s drastic measure some merit by insisting that Science concepts
will be integrated in first graders’ subjects anyway, although they will no longer have an actual
science subject. According to the article, the subjects for first graders under the new K+12 curriculum
would be:
“…Mother Tongue, Filipino, Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao, Music, Art, Physical Education and Health
(MAPEH), Mathematics, Araling Panlipunan, and English – which will be taught in the second
semester and will mainly focus on oral fluency.”
Finally, it has been stated that the Science subject will instead be introduced in the third grade,
while Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan and Technology and Livelihood Education will be
taken up fourth and sixth grade, respectively.

Indeed, it is quite harrowing to visualize the morbid picture of our current educational system. With
the intention of making learning “more enjoyable to students,” DepEd had the audacity to
actually remove one of the core fields of knowledge in a child’s primary education. Another
unsettling thing in this blunder of DepEd is the sheer ambiguity of the provisions of the K+12 curriculum
regarding the removal of the Science subject. Luistro maintains that while Science will cease to be an
actual subject for first graders, science concepts will be introduced in their remaining subjects.
Does Luistro realize the chaotic implications of his statement? First and foremost, what exactly are the
parameters in implementing this policy? To what extent should these “concepts” be integrated in
the other subjects? How often should they be integrated? What is the scope of the concepts to be
integrated? The fact that Luistro didn’t even allude to such important factors makes this atrocious
move of DepEd’s even less credible.
What’s even more worrying is how first-grade students will receive such pandemonium. What if
you’re discussing Philippine history, when suddenly the teacher sidetracks the lesson to scientific
concepts? The bigger problem is that, since the students do not have a solid background on science,
discussions will be filled with confusion on what the teacher is actually talking about, and why he or
she is talking about it in the first place. Have Luistro and the Department even given these implications
a single thought, before recklessly twisting our educational system?
Another ambiguity demonstrated by Luistro is the Department’s intention in abolishing Science as
part of the curriculum for first-graders. What exactly did he mean by “taking the students where
they are?” Where exactly are they, and in what terms? For something as crucial as education,
Luistro’s vagueness in his justifications hardly gave DepEd’s decision any credence.
Given the facts laid in front of us, it is right, necessary even, to infer from what we have gathered
regarding this issue. Just what is DepEd planning to do? On the top of my head, I can think of at least
three major possibilities:
1. That DepEd is really just after the student’s enjoyment in school, like what Luistro asserted. But
what makes this goal unsavoury is that a solid ground in basic scientific knowledge is being sacrificed
for the sake of “enjoyment.” This is a false dichotomy; maximizing a student’s enjoyment in
learning does not necessitate removing a cornerstone of basic knowledge. It necessitates proper
teaching and its maintenance. To ignore this will betray DepEd’s laziness to set things right, and
instead will go for the easy way and outright abolish the subject, in the guise of “making learning
more fun for students.”
2. That DepEd is starting its own nationalism campaign. You will notice that in place of Science, Mother
Tongue has been listed as one of the subjects for the first-grade level, with Filipino as a separate
subject. Won’t this make learning Filipino superfluous? I do not have issues with aiming to enlighten
the youth in the Filipino language and culture, but is this cause worthy enough to set aside a subject
that helped civilization throughout the course of its existence? Does DepEd prioritize nationalism over
science? Should this be the actual objective of DepEd, we just might have a case of misplaced priorities
here.
 3. That DepEd might be on a dumbing-down campaign. From the K+12 curriculum that punishes families
while doing nothing substantial about the deteriorating quality of education in the Philippines, now we
have the abolition of Science as a subject. Is DepEd deliberately making decent education increasingly
inaccessible to the average Juan? This supposition might border on conspiracy theory, but, given the
circumstances, we cannot dismiss the possibility, or even the probability of this idea. Is the
government pursuing the gradual “dumbing down” of the masses for some ulterior motive?
For the time being, our speculations will remain as plain speculations. However, this one thing is true;
Philippine education is slowly going down the drain. This fact is reason enough for us to call for a close
scrutiny of what has become of our society, its root causes, and what can be done to resolve such
issues. Problems like education transcend the trivialities churned out by mainstream media, ranging
from Kris Aquino’s drivel to PNoy’s uninteresting love life.
http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2012/01/deped-what-are-they-planning/

Science
Young children are naturally curious and inquisitive, always delighted to explore the world around
them. The main role of the science curriculum in kindergarten is to support and encourage this
curiosity.

Science isn’t just a body of knowledge — it's a way of acquiring scientific concepts and principles,
and the best elementary school programs get students interested in investigating the world around
them. As children learn facts and vocabulary, they develop the ability to ask scientific questions, plan
experiments to answer these questions, and develop reasonable explanations based on their
observations.

Science standards vary widely from state to state and school to school, but the thinking skills taught
by science are universal. Most elementary schoolers will get an introduction to sound, electricity,
plants, animals, and the three states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas). The National Science Education
Standards — the jumping-off place for many states — lists important topics and thinking skills for
kindergarten through high school.
The topics below are examples taken from several states and therefore merely guidelines. To see
how your child's schoolwork compares, check out your state's science standards.
What science concepts will my kindergartner learn?

Expect kindergartners to learn about the world around them through observation and
experimentation. Most kindergarten teachers touch on the following topics:

 Plants, animals, and their life cycles: The similarities and differences between plants and animals;
their identifying characteristics (birds have feathers, plants have roots) — and kids might explore life cycles
by studying butterflies and frogs.
 Seasons and weather: Weather changes, both day to day and across the seasons.
 The human body: Parts of the body, the five senses.
 Measurement and motion: Magnets (push and pull), comparing objects by weight and size.
What types of science instruction will my kindergartner get?
Kindergartners learn how to conduct experiments and record observations. For example, teachers
might show their students how to plant seeds in a see-through container, letting kids observe plants
as they grow. Another kindergarten science aid, the weather vane, can help students visualize the
various directions in which wind blows. Throughout their journey as experimenters, children should
be encouraged to observe and communicate the changes they see.

Outside the kinder-lab, students learn about the biographies of famous scientists, like George
Washington Carver, Jane Goodall, and the Wright brothers.

Young children are curious about the world around them and eager to explore it. This curiosity is
reflected in the numerous questions that children pose in everyday conversations at home and
in school. However, at the beginning of school, young children are afforded few opportunities to
engage systematically and thoughtfully in learning science. On average, less than 10% of
instructional time is spent on teaching science in the early grades. Science instruction occurs
sporadically and the science activities that are used by teachers in early science instruction tend
to be ad hoc and to inhibit inquiry and reflection on the part of young children.

The Scientific Literacy Project (SLP) is a federally funded project designed to help kindergarten
teachers use inquiry-based science instruction that integrates literacy with science teaching and
learning. An important goal of the project is document how and what children learn about
science from such instruction. 

Developed by a team of researchers at Purdue University in collaboration with Indiana

classroom teachers, the SLP is grounded in the view that science is a process of inquiry in
which we construct, evaluate, and reconstruct models of the natural world. Through a series of
science units, children explore key scientific concepts, such as the difference between living and
non-living things, tools for scientific investigation and measurement, and how living things are
adapted to their habitats. 

Each SLP unit combines a group of topical books with classroom activities (nature walks,
maintaining a saltwater aquarium, watching eggs hatch in an incubator) that engage children in
actively learning about science. During teacher-guided activities, children make predictions,
record observations in their science notebooks, and discuss their findings. Inquiry and literacy
activities are linked to state academic standards for kindergarten and are mapped to Science,
English/Language Arts, and Mathematics standards.

Parents can also play a key role in the Scientific Literacy Project. The researchers have
prepared a parent guide for each book to help parents read the science books with their child.
The guides contain questions that link the book to the classroom activities, the science topic in
general, and to other school subjects such as mathematics. After the books are read in class,
they can be sent home each week with the reading guides to aid parents in further exploring the
science topics with their children and to help extend their children’s vocabulary and reading.