WHAT is the future of the national government’s K-12 basic education program?
Downhill, it appears, with the Senior High School level failing to deliver on its expected outcomes.
No less than President Marcos Jr. has expressed dismay that the program, implemented more than a decade ago, has not provided any real advantage to its graduates.
“It’s costing parents more because two additional years were added. They still have to pay for enrolment, buy a lot of school supplies, purchase books – everything. Yet after 10 years, graduates still don’ get jobs,” Marcos said.
Despite this, Marcos said he has directed Education Secretary Sonny Angara to improve the program, particularly to address the issue of job mismatching, considered the primary problem among its graduates.
Meanwhile, Senate Bill 3001 seeks to implement a “rationalized basic education program” to better serve learners. It proposes a one-year kindergarten program, followed by six years of elementar education and four years of secondary education.
The bill amending Republic Act 10533, also known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, cited the admission of the Department of Education that the SHS program “has not yet reached its vision for the K-12 graduates” due to a congested curriculum, overworked teachers and students, and the low employment rate of SHS graduates.
The K-12 basic education program was rolled out in 2013.
Back then, the Philippine was one among only three countries with a ten-year pre-university, while others had a 13-yr program consisting of a required kindergarten, six years of elementary school, four years of high school, and two years of senior high.
K-12 was supposed to put the Philippines on the same level as the rest of the world, so that those seeking entry to foreign universities would not have to take two more years of high school.
While the program was noble in its intentions, the two extra years of senior high was resisted by parents who felt that they were burdened with two more years of spending for their children’s tuition.
They also perceived Senior High School as a program that had been forced onto them rather than introduced gradually. Hence, there’s now growing sentiment to go back to the old system.
Will the DepEd heed the clamor? We hope Secretary Angara exerts every effort to make a real difference in our education system in the next three years.
