MANILA Auxillary Bishop Broderick Pabillo on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to immediately rule with finality on the issue to strike down the Enhanced Basic Education Act or the law on K-12.
“[The Supreme Court] should decide because many teachers are worrying what will happen to them, including the students and parents,” Pabillo said in a television interview over GMA News TV.
The clergyman is representing the Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines that filed its complaint before the high court last year.
Similar complaints filed before the SC are awaiting the high court’s decision.
In light of the upcoming full implementation of the K-12 program by June 2016, the Education Department said that Grade 6 learners who will complete elementary education will now get their elementary certificate in a graduation ceremony. Grade 10 learners, meanwhile, who will complete junior high school will go through a moving up or completion ceremony and get their junior high school certificate instead.
Grade 12 learners from schools with DepEd-approved K to 12 transition plan; those who graduated from schools with a permit to operate Senior High School in school year 2014; and those who graduated in International Schools with K to 12 program will all get high school diploma in a graduation ceremony.
Pabillo said that the teachers and staff members are scared of losing their jobs and their tenure because the “safety net” that the government has offered is not enough.
Pabillo claimed that the government, through the Department of Labor and Employment promised the affected personnel they will be provided with dole for only six months.
He added that the Labor Department promised to give scholarships to the children of the displaced teachers.