The Department of Education Culture and Sports (DECS) provides and promotes values education at all three levels of the educational system for the development of the human person committed to the building "of a just and humane society" and an independent and democratic nation.

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Framework and Rationale

 

VALUE
A thing has valued when it is perceived as good and desirable. Food, money, and housing have a value because they are perceived as good and the desire to acquire them influences attitudes and behavior.

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Not only material goods but also ideals and concepts are valuable, such as truth, honesty, and justice. For instance, if truth is a value for one, it commands in one an inner commitment which in turn translates itself into one’s daily speech and action. Truth is good and desirable; it influences attitudes and behavior.

 

Values are the bases of judging what attitudes and behavior are correct and desirable and what are not. It is therefore of crucial importance that there be an appropriate framework as well as strategy for providing the context and operational guidelines for implementing a values education program. The values education framework hereby suggested is designed to translate values from the abstract into the practical. The importance of this is underscored by the fact that values, when defined in a book or in the classroom or discussed at the family table, tend to be abstract. Values such as discipline and concern for the poor are ineffective unless they are internalized and translated into action. Therefore, there is need for values education that is meaningful and effective.

 

VALUES EDUCATION
Values Education as a part of the school curriculum is the process by which values are formed in the learner under the guidance of the teacher and as he interacts with this environment. But it involves not just any kind of teaching-learning process.

First of all, the subject matter itself, values, has direct and immediate relevance to the personal life of the learner.

Second, the process is not just cognitive but involves all the faculties of the learner. The teacher must appeal not only to the mind but the hearts as weell, in fact, the total human person.

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Third, one learns values the way children learn many things from their parents. Children identify with parents, and this identification becomes the vehicle for the transmission of learning, be it language or the values of thrift and hard work. Hence, the teacher’s personal values play an important role in values learning.

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GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Values have a social function: commonly held values unite families, tribes, societies, and nations. They are essential to the democratic way of lie, which puts a high premium on freedom and the rule of law. That is why, shortly after the Revolution of February 1986, the DECS made values education a primary thrust.

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Similarly, the DECS thrust found strong support in the Philippine Constitution of 1987 in its vision of " a just and humane society," which calls for a shared culture and commonly held values such as "truth, justice, freedom, love, equality and peace." (Preamble)

In the pursuit of this thrust, the DECS has embarked on a Values Education Program with the following goal and objectives.

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GOAL
To provide and promote values education at all three levels of the educational system for the development of the human person committed to the building o " a just and humane society" and an independent and democratic nation.

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OBJECTIVES
Proper implementation of the program will develop Filipinos who:

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• are self-actualized, integrally developed human beings imbued with a sense of human dignity;

• are social beings with a sense of responsibility for their community and environment;

• are productive persons who contribute to the economic security and development of the family and the nation;

• as citizens have a deep sense of nationalism and are committed to the progress of the nation as well as of the entire world community through global solidarity; and

• manifest in actual life an abiding faith in God as a reflection of their spiritual being.

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PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES 
Values education, pursued at the national, regional, local, and institution levels, should be guided by the following general principles:

 

It must be oriented toward the total person of the learner-mind, heart, and entire being.

It must take into consideration the unique role of the family in one’s personal development and integration into society and the nation.

In the school context, more important than lesson plans and any list of values are the teachers themselves who have the proper sense of values, awareness of their inner worth, and utmost respect for the person of the other.

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VALUES CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The Values Education Framework, herein described, is intended as a guide and form of teaching aid in the implementation of the Values Education Program.

 

WHAT IT IS NOT

• It is not prescriptive: values cannot be imposed.

• It is not exhaustive; it does not purport to be a complete list of human values.

• It makes no statement on regional, local, and institutional needs and priorities.

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WHAT IT IS

• It is descriptive: it is an attempt at an orderly description of a desirable value system on the a basis of an understanding of the human person.

• It is conceptual: it lists ideals which have to be internalized in the educational process.

• It is intended to be applicable in varying degress to all three levels of the educational system.

• It is broad and flexible enough for adaptation to specific contexts.

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ITS USES
It is desirable that regions, localities, and institutions construct their own values map, with clearly defined priorities, suited to their peculiar context and needs, This DECS framework should be of help in such a task.

Classroom teachers, syllabi constructors, and curriculum planners may use it to identify which values are to be targeted in specific courses and programs.

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The DECS framework may also serve as a frame fo reference in the reform and revision of operative Filipino values. For instance, against the background of the framework, pakikisama should be seen as something to be prized but not at the expense of personal integrity, likewise, as a Filipino value, it should be compatible with the much-needed productivity and should even become a bridge to national solidarity. Similarly, utang na loob should have wider applications in society so that it can propel other values such as concern for the common good and social justice.

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PHILOSOPHY

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THE HUMAN PERSON
The Values Education Framework herein presented is based on a rational understanding, that is to say, a philosophy, of the human person. More specifically, it is grounded on a rational understanding of the Filipino in his historical and cultural context, which under grids the Philippine Constitution of 1987. That understanding of the Filipino as a human being in society and his role in the shaping of society and the environment may be reconstructed from the various statements of the Constitution and expressed in the following summary manner:

  

The human person is the subject of education: he is a human person learning and being taught. The human person is also the object: the human person is at the center of the curriculum and the entire program. The task of education is to help the Filipino develop his human potential, contribute to the growth of the Philippine culture, and by controlling the environment and making use of human and non-human resources, build appropriate structures, and institution for the attainment of a just and human society.

The human person is multi-dimensional. There is, first of all, the distinction between the person as self and the person in community. In real life, however, these are not two distinct and separate aspects; the person as self grows precisely by developing his faculties in contact with the world and others in the community and by taking an active role in improving that community.

The human person is an individual self-conscious being of incalculable value in himself(Art.11, Sec.11: Art. XIII, Sec.1) who cannot be a mere instrument of the society and of the state. He is not just body and soul juxtaposed or mixed as oil and water, but he is an embodied spirit. Hence, his physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual well-being is recognized by the State. (Art. II. Sec.13).

The human person, however, does not live in isolation but in community with other persons-physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual like himself. He is inevitably social (Art. II, Sec. 13).

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He belongs to a family, the basic unit of society or, in the words of the Constitution, "the foundation of the nation" (Art. XV, Sec.1) as well as to a wider and more complex society of men and women. Being social, he participates in defining the goals and destinies of the community and in achieving the common good.

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He is also economic. Life in a community involve the concerns of livelihood, sufficiency, production, and consumption.

Lastly, he is political. Like other peoples in the world, the Filipinos have constituted themselves into a nation-state to pursue the goal of "social progress" and " total human liberation and development." (Art.II,Sec.17)

Reference: Values Education for the Filipino

 

1997 Revised Version of the 
DECS Values Education Program
UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines
Education Committee Project