Direk Joey Reyes, a renowned Filipino filmmaker, has criticized the Philippines Department of Education (DepEd) for developing a module that asked students to identify which characters or actors in a movie said certain phrases.
The criticism comes amidst increased scrutiny of the modular education being implemented by the DepEd as an alternative for in-person learning. The Phillippines decided not to reopen schools for in-person learning until a vaccine had been made.
Filipino filmmaker complaint about modular education
Reyes took to social media to highlight what students were being taught after it was brought to his attention that Filipino module 2 asked students about “hugot lines” from different movies. Reyes said that the module included lessons about “to study rhetoric using our national language.”
In his social media post, the director started by highlighting the problem with such a module that was being run by the DepEd, by terming the problem as self-explanatory. He continued by questioning the kind of leaders who were learning the DepEd, saying that they lacked professionalism by delving into asking students about “hugot lines” from different locally produced movies and asking them to identify which actor said the lines.
Reyes continued by questioning the logic of the module creators. He wondered if they thought that adding movie phrases would help the students understand local languages much faster or think it would be an effective way of teaching students about local languages.
Reyes, who is also an educator, expressed his disappointment with the standards set by the DepEd, indicating that he had become demoralized and infuriated by the lowering of the country’s education standards.
The Filipino filmmaker wondered how, as a country, the Philippines would develop a generation of critical thinkers when the people running the education dockets were in dire need of brains and even dedication to their work. Reyes even went ahead and concerted a new term calling people running the education docket ‘Ediots.’
The DepEd, through the director for public affairs service, June Arvin Gudoy, has denied that the “hugot lines ” identification is part of their modules. They indicated that the school had modified the module highlighted by the filmmaker, and therefore it was not being taught across the country.
Featured image by Pixabay
