Media and Information Literacy (MIL) began while the International Symposium on Media

Education held in Grunwald started to open up the importance of getting a concrete media

schooling for all (UNESCO, 1982). Towards the give up of the symposium, the delegates got

here up with things to consider while teaching media schooling which is crucial to expand the

critical thinking skills of people.

As time went by, a handful of declarations and guidelines were suggested to completely put into

effect a collaborative agenda in the direction of achieving a national media and records literacy

in every member of the United Nations.

For instance, the primary forum on MIL held in Fez, Morocco in 2011 completely endorsed the

combination of media literacy and statistical literacy to gain sustainable development. The

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) also supplied seven

pointers that each organization and government must act upon to make certain that regulations

and techniques might be implemented. One advice is that MIL training should be embedded in

all lifelong studying curricula. In the Philippines, it's far now a part of the senior excessive school

program being implemented with the aid of the Department of Education.

The education system here in the Philippines has been a very controversial topic these past few

years, mainly because it seems outdated when compared to other countries' educational

backgrounds, which gave the government a hard time integrating the K-12 program, a program

which gives two additional high school years called Senior High (SHS). The said program also

changes the name of the Junior High School (JHS) level from 1st – 4th-year high school to

grades 7 – 10.
The program also introduces 4 new strands available to be chosen by incoming SHS students

namely Accountancy, Business & Management (ABM), Humanities & Social Sciences

(HUMSS), Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and General Academic

Strand (GAS). Additional strands include Arts and Design Track (ADT), Home Economics (HE),

Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Tourism.

Following these new strands, new subjects were also implemented for this curriculum such as

MIL. MIL is described by DepEd as “the course introduces the learners to the basic

understanding of media and information as channels of communication and tools for

the development of individuals and societies. It also aims to develop students to be creative and

critical thinkers as well as responsible users and competent producers of media and

information” (2013).

It is also a required subject on the SHS curriculum that was implemented later on. According to

the Moscow Declaration on Media and Information Literacy (2012), Media and Information

Literacy is a “combination of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices required to access,

analyze, evaluate, use, produce, and communicate information and knowledge in creative, legal

and ethical ways that respect human rights.”

This posed new obstacles for the sudden change of the current curriculum such as absorbing,

aligning and adjustment of the proposed MIL framework by UNESCO to our current system.

Various critics have also pointed out that the current system proposed by DepEd doesn't match

up with UNESCO's standards.

As today’s students are more tech-savvy and media-oriented, they are now faced with new

tasks that have come along with the new digital age, in the form of media and information

literacy.

As stated through Yap and Alejo (2016), education, seminars, and meetings are positive

blessings to beautify professional competencies. Aside from that, the goal of UNESCO to

integrate a curriculum geared towards mastering MIL has just started in some nations. The

following are the Asian countries that might be now checking out the waters and investing in

human capital to boost the promotion of MIL.

Webber (2017) mentioned in her blog that China has a growing hobby in MIL primarily based

on the UNESCO Global MIL Assessment Framework: Country Readiness and Competencies

research conducted through Zhang Kai.

Kai (2017) reviewed the modern state of media literacy training in China and found out that MIL

training practice lacks sensible standards, government aid and has a diverse interpretation of

MIL. Professionals, particularly instructors who will have a direct touch with the scholars require

the right education and guidance in handling and coaching MIL.

Japan has been actively selling MIL inside the region. They were able to organize the Tokyo

International Symposium aims to raise cognizance of MIL in Japan and the Asia Pacific.

The Philippines is not a long way in the back of the above-noted countries. It is presently

implementing the MIL curriculum for senior high school students. Republic Act No. 10533 also

referred to as the ‘Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013’ paved the manner for the inclusion of

MIL into the course curriculum which develops the progressive and critical thinking capabilities

of college students to become responsible users and content material creators of media and

information (Labangon & Zabala, 2018).

DLSU has usually been at the forefront of imparting worthwhile schooling applications that could

stimulate lifelong gaining knowledge of all of the users (Yap, Labangon & Cajes, 2017). One

way to unfold MIL competency is to acquire librarians and train them on the components of MIL.

As noted via Labangon & Zabala (2018), the majority of this teaching MIL lack the expert

preparatory education for MIL In 2016, DLSU supplied its first unfastened half-day lecture on

MIL for public faculty teacher-librarians (DLSU Newsette, 2016).