Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday recommended streamlining college education to three years rather than reducing the number of years in the K-12 basic education cycle.
“Instead of going back to a 10-year basic education cycle, we are pushing to shorten the number of years in college,” said Gatchalian, who filed the proposed Three-Year College Education (3CE) Act allowing degree programs to be completed in no more than three academic years.
Gatchalian believes that shortening the length of college is a more practical and globally aligned reform compared to rolling back basic education, cautioning that shortening basic education could put the Philippines at odds with international standards followed by most countries.
According to his office’s analysis of UNESCO microdata, 99.5 percent of education systems worldwide offer more than 10 years of basic education. Out of the 214 countries analyzed, 135 or about 63.1 percent offer 12 years of basic education, while another 57 or 26.6 percent require 13 years.
Nations such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea are among those with 12-year basic education systems. In the ASEAN region, seven out of 10 countries, including Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar, also implement a 12-year cycle.
“We still have many reforms we want to push to address the education crisis our country is facing. As the 20th Congress opens, we will continue to prioritize reforms that will improve the quality of education in the Philippines,” Gatchalian said in an earlier statement.