Subject: Teaching Multigrade Classes Module 1: Multigrade Education: Legal Bases, Meaning, Challenges
Subject: Teaching Multigrade Classes Module 1: Multigrade Education: Legal Bases, Meaning, Challenges
I. Introduction
This module discusses the legal bases of Multigrade Education in the Philippine System
of Education. It provides an in-depth understanding of its features and significance that will lead
future educators in embracing multigrade teaching and its principles in preparation of a
multigrade teaching-learning plan.
V. Topics
Multigrade teaching is an important and appropriate way to help nations reach their
internationally-mandated Education for All targets and national Millennium Development Goals
by providing good quality education to children who are often neglected by their education
system because they live in small, poor, and remote communities. More importantly, it is an
approach that can help schools in these communities and teachers in these schools serve their
students better by providing them an education that is both good quality and relevant to the
community in which they live.
Many teachers in Asia and the Pacific – teachers such as you – need to teach students
from more than one grade in one classroom. And many – in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia,
the Philippines, Viet Nam and elsewhere – are already doing so and the approach being used is
known as multigrade teaching.
In the Philippines,the Seventh Day Adventist Church has implemented numerous
successful multigrade classes in many of its mission schools in the country.The Department of
Education is also implementing multigrade classes in many divisions in the country.
Multigrade teaching involves the teaching of students from different grade levels in one
classroom.This requires teachers to develop skills in handling different students’ behavior and
in addressing their needs and interests.
Multigrade classes refer to one class of students, in which there are two or more groups,
each performing at different competence, or grade levels.Sometimes this is called – a
‘combination class’ (if there are only two grades) in the Philippines. In other countries,
multigrade classess can also be called
Vertically grouped, Family grouped or Multiaged classes.
The prime reasons for multi-grade classes may be placed into four major categories:
Low (or reduced) community population, possibly due to migration, or an increased
death rate;
Poor economic conditions, resulting in inadequate teaching resources;
The persistence of cultural practices which would impede the attendance of students at
school;
Geographical location of the school, which may be in a remote, inaccessible vi//age;
Some students may be mentally challenged, and there are no provisions for special
education nearby.
All teaching offers challenges, and as a multigrade teacher you have specific things to think
about to ensure you get the best out of the students in your class. These challenges and the
opportunities they present include:
Legal Bases
The Multigrade Program in the Philippine Education (MPPE) was launched in 1993
through Deped Order 83 and subsequently in 1997,the Department issued Order No.96 to
support the implementation of the MPPE.
1. The purpose and objectives of this revised guidelines are:
2. To provide a framework for more effective implementation of the multigrade education
program which set directions for providing access to education and achieving higher
learning outcomes.
3. To make multigrade schools the most important learning centers for Filipino learners in
the remote and disadvantaged communities in the region.
4. To ensure that multigrade school receive the kind of services they deserve by taking into
account thev interest and needs of teachers and learners;and
5. To encourage stronger community-school partnership to take initiatives for the
improvement of schools.
Policy/Issuance DECS Order No. 38, s. 1993 - “Improving Access to Elementary Education
By Providing Complete Grade Levels in all Public Elementary Schools Through
Combination and/or Multigrade Class”
DECS Order No. 96, 1997 - “Policies and Guidelines in the Organization and Operation of
Multigrade Classes”
DECS Order No. 91, s. 1997 - “Special Hardship Allowance for Multigrade Teachers”
DECS Order No. 27, s. 2000 - “Institutionalization of Community Support Scheme (CSS)
as one of the Best Practices of the MPPE”
DepEd Memo No. 404 s. 2004 - “Dissemination of the Training Video on Multigrade
Instruction”
DepEd Memo No. 245 s. 2007 - “2007 Search for Multigrade Teacher Achiever”
DepEd Memo No. 155, s. 2008 - “Awarding Ceremony for the 2007 Search for
Multigrade Teacher Achiever”
DepEd Memo No. 289 s. 2008 - “National Training-Workshop for Trainers on Multigrade
Instruction”
REFERENCES:
Brewer. (2015).The Power of Small School The Journal of Adventist Education 77:3(October-
November2015):3 http://circle.adventist.org/files/jae/en/jae201577030302.pdf
Mathot, G. (2001). A Handbook for teachers of multi-grade classes: improving performance at the
primary level . Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000125919