Tuguegarao City (26 January) --he University of the Philippines, Baguio City campus is inviting all Social Studies, Makabayan and History teachers and students to attend the Forum on Social Studies Curriculum and Textbooks in Basic Education on February 12, 2010, 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the UP-Bulwagang Juan Luna.

Organized by the UP, Department of History and Philosophy, College of Social Sciences, the forum aims to clarify content as well as pedagogical issues in History and Social Studies and to come up with recommendations that will improve the teaching of History and Social Studies in the elementary and secondary curricula.

Dr. Maria Serena Diokno, a distinguished Filipino historian and consultant for Philippine textbooks and curriculum will deliver a presentation entitled "Making a Case for History in Basic Education". This is the result of the findings of a project she conducted that reviewed the curriculum and textbooks of Social Studies in the public sector basic education.

Diokno's findings showed that History has been marginalized in the basic education curriculum. The research said that although three out of four years in high school teach History (Philippine, Asia and World) at the elementary level, History is taught only in Grade V.

History is part of the rubric of Social Studies, which primarily includes geography, civics and government and economics.

The findings also pointed out that History is not civics, social sciences or social studies and there is a conceptual fragility of the combination.

The findings further said the content of the social studies curriculum at the elementary and secondary levels, including the competencies that are expected to be taught and learned, as well as the quality of textbooks are substandard.

The university is encouraging the participants to come up with recommendations that will facilitate improvements in the teaching of History and Social Studies as well as the need for the restoration of History in the basic education curriculum.