Consumer education to be part of high school curriculum next year

Davao City -- Consumer education will be part of the curriculum of public and private high schools nationwide by School Year 2009-2010.

This after a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the integration of consumer education into public and private secondary teaching between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Education (DepEd) was signed in October last year.

Seventeen consumer-related laws and the One Town, One Product (OTOP) program are identified to be included in the students' learning competencies in eight major subjects, namely, English, Mathematics, Science, Filipino, Araling Panlipunan, Technology, Livelihood Education, MAPEH (Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health), and Values Education.

The first phase of the project called Teachers' Exemplar Writeshop, was conducted last year in Baguio City. The writeshop was set for Master Teachers to create exemplars -compilation of detailed instructions, references, competencies, lesson plans - demonstrating how consumer welfare topics will be integrated and taught across the eight subjects.

The initial validation of the said exemplars formed part of the second phase.

In the third phase of the project, a thorough validation by a set of expert teacher-writers was done. These teacher-writers scholarly polished the said exemplars.

The teachers' exemplars are currently being refined further and being prepared for its packaging prior to the orientation/training opted for School Principals and Head Teachers this month. This will comprise the fourth phase of the project.

DTI 11 Assistant Regional Director Marizon S. Loreto said the integration of consumer education into the secondary curriculum will help DTI a lot in intensifying its campaign towards empowering consumers further.