\

Content - Legal Bases of Values Education Legal Bases and Content of Values Education
1. The Philippine Constitution of 1987 mandates in its preamble the building “of a just and
humane society and establishing a government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations,
promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony and secure to ourselves and our
country the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth,
justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace”.
2. The educational policy statement in Article XIV, Sec. 3 clearly mandates all educational
institutions to “inculcate patriotism and nationalism, foster love of humanity, respect for human
rights, appreciation of the role of national heroes in the historical development of the country,
teach the rights and duties of citizenship, strengthen ethical and spiritual values, develop moral
character and creative thinking, broaden scientific and technological knowledge, and promote
vocational efficiency.
3. Based on the mandate of the 1987 Constitution, the Values Education Program Framework
authored by the then DECS Secretary, Dr. Lourdes R. Quisumbing, has been developed to serve
as a guideline for the implementation of values education programs in the three levels of
education – elementary, secondary, and tertiary.
4. It was in 1988 that DECS, through Dr. Quisumbing’s leadership, made Values Education as an
educational thrust in all the levels of Philippine education. The new secondary school curriculum
was implemented starting school year 1989 – 1990 and introduced Values Education as a separate
subject while values development was also integrated in all the other subjects in the curriculum.
5. The content of the four-year Values Education Program (DECS Order No. 6, s. 1988) is focused
on the development of a fully functioning human person. It develops through four main concepts
of values development such as the development of relationship skills with the self, with fellow
human beings, with forces around him and with the Supreme Being.
CORE VALUES
The supreme and overarching value that characterizes education is human dignity: the value of the
person is of infinite value.
1. Being physical (made of matter), he must maintain health and harmony with nature.
2. Being spiritual (capable of higher concerns and of rising above the material), he must cultivate a
global spirituality which essentially connects him with God and the whole Earth community.
3. Being intellectual (gifted with mind, the faculty of knowing), he must constantly search for the truth.
He seeks knowledge that would transform society and the world. At the same time he maintains a
tolerant and open disposition of the mind.
4. Being moral (endowed with the faculty of freely choosing and loving) he must go out to others and in
fact to all humanity in love.
5. Being social (living in a community), he must help build peace and justice in our society, through the
pursuit of family solidarity as well as the common good and well-being of the larger society. He must
also cultivate respect for human rights and active non-violence.
6. Being economic (bound to concerns of production and consumption), he must help achieve the goal
of a more human and sustainable development for the community.
7. Being political (relating to the conduct of political affairs within the nation and the world), he must
cultivate his sense of nationalism and globalism. For the former, love of country and national unity are
foremost concerns while for the latter, global solidarity and peace are the fundamental goals. The
foregoing are values pertaining to the person as self; indeed, the human being must achieve integral
selfdevelopment by cultivating his human faculties to the fullest possible. In fact, however, these values
are actualized in society.