Place of Food Safety Education in the Philippine K to 12 Curriculum

Abstract

Cases of school-aged children affected by foodborne diseases (FBD) are frequently reported, and this increasing rate of affected children is attributed to malpractices in food preparation and production. These malpractices are not only committed by the said population but are also done by businesses affiliated to schools and those by the school personnel. Thus, the study investigated the place of food safety education (FSED) topics in the present K to 12 Curriculum of the country. It explored the multiple dimensions of the 2016 curriculum guides (CGs) that contain topics on food handling and preparation. A qualitative design was used in the situational analysis, which utilized various data collection and analysis techniques through participant interview, focus group discussion (FGD), and analyses of documents to provide information about where FSED as a topic is being integrated into the Intermediate (4–6), Junior (7–10), and Senior (11–12) High School subjects. Three food safety experts (FSEs) were purposively selected for the study. All of the FSEs are female and have experience working in the academe and industry. They reviewed and examined the CGs consisting of 600 pages for a period of 5 mo using an evaluation tool. As revealed, out of the 2,426 topic bodies in the assessed CGs, there are only 490 food safety (FS) topics, which only account for 20.20% of the total topics for all the subjects identified to have revealed traces of FS concepts and practices. Also, the CGs have no detailed specifications on the sub-topics to be discussed, FSED is not provided with an adequate learning space in the Philippine curriculum; rather, it is treated in a separate, scattered, and disconnected manner, positioning it at the margins of the curriculum. Therefore, the curriculum should provide a dedicated space focusing on FSED. This way, the identified weaknesses by the research in terms of conceptualization and implementation of FS-related topics could be satisfactorily addressed.