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ASSESSMENT ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOPICS AND LEARNING

COMPETENCIES IN REVISED BASIC EDUCATION CURRICULUM (RBEC) AND K+12
SCIENCE CURRICULUM (GRADE 11)

Technical Report · September 2016

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 ASSESSMENT ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOPICS AND LEARNING COMPETENCIES IN REVISED BASIC EDUCATION CURRICULUM (RBEC) AND K+12 SCIENCE
CURRICULUM (GRADE 11)

Introduction
The educational system of the Philippines is still on the process of renewing for some factors identified. The people in the education sector are trying their
best in addressing the needs of the people and trying their best in giving the Filipino people a quality education that could bring from a progressive individual to a
progressive country. Curriculum is a dynamic agent in the aspect of education and that is very evident as the Filipino students are in the course of adjusting their
educational arena to fit it to the present design of our curriculum ― K+12 Curriculum. The new curriculum is the result of the 3-year mediation of the people in the
education sector. The curriculum was subjected to tedious and complex processes before it has been put in place in the education arena.
The introduction of this new curriculum to schools harvested many comments and even judging it to a negative way. This reaction is primarily because of the
approach that is embedded in the curriculum, which is the spiral progression approach. One of the highlights of the curriculum is the decongestion of the topics for
the better understanding and retention to students. In contrast to the old curriculum, the topics are being compressed to satisfy the need of the subject to be finished
in one year. The result of this is the less retention and understanding to the topics. That is one of the reasons of the existence of this new paradigm.
For the reason of curiosity, this paper is molded from the reactions of different sectors in the society. The main concern of the one particular group, the
teachers, is the distribution of topics. According to them, there are lapses and discrepancies on the distribution of topics in Science, for example. For us to determine
whether the rumors and speculations are true, this paper will give you some idea of the distribution of topics in RBEC and K+12 Curriculum (Senior High School –
Grade 11).

Assessment of the Topics

The arrangement and distribution of topics are being assessed using the Philippine Secondary Learning Competencies (PSLC) for second year high school
and the K+12 Science Curriculum Guide for Grade 11.

Table 1. The Distribution of Topics in RBEC (PSLC for Biology) and K+12 Science Curriculum (Grade 11)
RBEC (PSLC for Biology) K+12 SCIENCE CURRICULUM GUIDE
Nature of Biology Introduction to Life Science
Cell Structure and Function
Bioenergetics
Life Energy
How Animals Survive
Organ Systems
How Plants Survive
Reproduction
Perpetuation of Life
Genetics
Evolution
The Process of Evolution
Biodiversity
Ecosystem Interaction and Interdependence
 Table 1 shows the distribution of topics in RBEC and K+12 Curriculum. It was arranged based on equivalent topics of the two curricula. These topics are for
Grade 11 and it belongs to the core curriculum (Earth and Life Science). The topics in earth and life science, for core curriculum, are distributed to all tracks. This is
in the condition that these core subjects, for example Earth and Life Science, is in the same content and the same learning competencies. Also, there is an evident
change in the course of the new curriculum and that is their arrangement of the topics. “How Animals Survive”, “How Plants Survive”, and “Perpetuation of Life” is
not in order as we based it to the PSLC. In the new curriculum, “Perpetuation of Life” is first one to be discussed followed by the “How Animals/Plants Survive”. The
arrangement in the curriculum is illogical and incoherent since it is more appropriate that the teacher should discuss first the structures and functions of the organ
system of both animals and plants to be followed by the perpetuation of life. The students should have first an idea about the concept of reproductive system before
she can understand as to how we can perpetuate life. As we look at the table, we can say that the distribution of topics in RBEC (Biology) is the same with the
distribution of topics in K+12 Science Curriculum. Although, there is this rearrangement of topics but still we can say that they all in the right track.

Table 2. Assessment of the Distribution of Topics in RBEC (PSLC for Biology) and K+12 Science Curriculum (Grade 11)
RBEC (PSLC for Biology)
Nature of Biology
Cell Structure and Function
Life Energy
Organ Systems
K+12 SCIENCE
CURRICULUM
Introduction to Life Science
Bioenergetics
How Animals Survive
How Plants Survive
REMARKS
 They have different subtopics.
 For PSLC, it talks about the basic concepts that could establish the term Biology.
 For the NC, it discusses more on the origin of life
 The only common to the two is that they emphasized the unifying ideas in Biology.
 The two main topics of Biology in RBEC are equivalent to one main topic in K+12.
 In RBEC, the discussion is more on the wide concepts of cell and discusses more on the
functions and processes in the cell. Also, it talks more on the process in obtaining and
utilizing energy.
 For the NC, the discussion is subjected to specificity since the discussion focuses on the
function of the cell in obtaining and utilizing energy. Basically, it is more on the cytological
level.
 A little concept of everything but very specific.
 In RBEC, the topics are more on the parts and functions of the different organ systems of
animals and plants. Also, it includes the discussion on the technologies that help the
specific defective organ function properly.
 For the NC, it has two separate parts and a specific discussion on plants and animals.
The discussion is mainly on the process (physiological) and not so with the parts except
for plants because it requires a discussion on the structure and function of the different
plant organs.
 The common of the two is that they are focusing on the processes that needed for the
survival of the organisms.
 RBEC (PSLC for Biology) K+12 SCIENCE
REMARKS
CURRICULUM
 There is a very noticeable change in the two curricula, which is the arrangement of the
topics.
Reproduction  The two topics for RBEC are fused to one topic for the NC.
 RBEC gives more emphasis to the wide scope of these two concepts. Because of that
they have to separate those two so as to give the students more knowledge about it.
Perpetuation of Life  K+12 emphasizes the discussion on ways of how organisms (plants and animals)
reproduce, how genes work, and genetic engineering.

Genetics

 This is a good idea since if we are talking about evolution we are actually talking about
biodiversity.
 The two topics are merged as the process of evolution.
Evolution  The topics listed in PSLC, for evolution and biodiversity, are the key concepts and they
are the foundations for understanding the two topics.
The Process of Evolution  In the case of K+12, the content is higher compared with the two topics listed in PSLC. It
talks about evidence for evolution, the origin and extinction of species, biodiversity, and
systematics. This has a low concentration since this part has only three (3) learning
Biodiversity competencies.

 RBEC: Has a limited and short discussion on ecosystem. If you are to look at the PSLC,
you can notice that they lack concepts in ecosystem.
Interaction and
Ecosystem
Interdependence  K+12: The content is higher than in RBEC (PSLC). Also, the concentration is the bigger
picture of ecosystem.

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