Dianne Stephanie A

In 2023, the Philippine Department of Education introduced the MATATAG K to 10 Curriculum to address persistent learning deficiencies through curriculum decongestion, strengthened foundational skills, and clearer 21st-century competency frameworks. This paper evaluates its first-year pilot implementation using a cluster randomized trial of 70 schools across seven regions, with mixed-methods data from curriculum reviews, teacher survey, classroom observations, and student assessments.

This study estimates future demand for public school classrooms using new projections of the school-age children population for 82 provinces and 33 urbanized cities in the Philippines up to 2060. A return to replacement-level fertility from the current total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.9 is expected to ease demand for public school classrooms, except in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where the population of school-age children is projected to continue increasing.