Duterte signs law requiring the return of GMRC in K-12 program

According to Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, President Duterte signed the law that will return the Good Manners and Right Conduct (GMRC) classes in the K to 12 programs.

Senator Zubiri is the prime author of the said measure.

“I hope the Department of Education can work on the IRR in time for the opening of classes come August,” Zubiri said in a statement.

“With many schools set on implementing distance learning, it’s going to be even more vital that we give our students formative guidance through GMRC and Values Education,” he added.

Zubiri is in hope that upon bringing back the GMRC subject, the youth will learn the necessity of values in spite of the absence of physical learning and interaction with others amid this pandemic.

“When we drafted this law, we thought it would be important to bring back GMRC because it would arm our kids with stronger moral codes that they would need in order to navigate this increasingly technological world,” Zubiri said.

“We didn’t anticipate that the world would basically grind to a halt, and all our interactions would move online. So the passage of this act is quite timely, and I hope it serves our students well,” he added.

Under this new measure, values education will be taught as a regular subject.

Currently GMRC was dissolved as a regular subject within the K to 12 curriculum. They integrated the  Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (ESP) instead which is only given 30 minutes in primary and 2 hours per week in secondary.

Teacher who will handle this are expected to have “certification, diploma, and training on values education and allied disciplines.”.