As of this writing, classes in elementary and secondary levels under the Department of Education (DepEd) were formally starting, and that’s for school year 2023-2024. This after so many preparations were made particularly by the teachers concerned.
Of these preparations, some were routines for teachers to do, but some were also rather strange, unusual to reckon. Consider, for instance, the order for them to backlash the decorations that used to embellish their classrooms. It’s totally ironic because in the past decades, teachers were busily adorning their rooms with educational materials necessary for the opening of classes. But now, they did away with them.
Well, they can’t help but follow the orders from their highest superiors, who saw the need to rid the classrooms of too much decorations. Take note—too much decorations. Which also makes sense. Why, too much wall decors can also cause distractions on the part of learners, especially if they become irrelevant in terms of content and design. Instead of listening to the teacher, or of focusing on the lesson, their minds could be diverted to something else.
So, for young learners to concentrate on the lessons without distractions, those excessive adornments had to be plucked off, save those ones that are really basic and fundamental to knowledge such as numbers, shapes, and letters for basic education levels like kindergarten classrooms, grade one, and grade two. Other than these, the wall decors in questions had to be taken down, thanks to the Brigada volunteer workers who allotted their precious time on volunteer work.
We salute the teachers for their extra efforts and money spent for their classroom and lesson preparations as the new school year starts. May the department achieve its goals in due time; may our education quality improve more.
