MEMBERS of the Alliance of Concert Teachers (ACT) party-list trooped to the Education Department Thursday to press for the suspension of the K-to-12 program and to demand an increase in the salary of teachers.
A leader of the group said they disapproved the way that President Benigno Aquino III and Education Secretary Armin Luistro forcibly implemented the program, even though the basic needs of the educational system were unmet.
“Since its implementation in 2012, we witnessed how K-to-12 worsened the burdens of our education system, particularly in the unavailability of textbooks and modules for the students, insufficient numbers of classrooms and other facilities and in the huge shortage of teachers,” ACT national chairman Benjie Valbuena said.
The group also debunked claims by the Education Department that fewer schools were implementing a three-shift policy. Instead, they said there were no new classrooms being built to support the increasing number of students, particularly under the K-to-12 program, which adds two years to the basic education.
The group said access to schooling would be limited, as only 333 schools were issued senior high school permits for school year 2015-16.
Valbuena added that the low pay of many public school teachers deprived them of a decent quality of life, in a clear violation of the Magna Carta of Public School Teachers.
The group said they will join others who have filed a challenge to the K-to-12 program before the Supreme Court.
In Congress, a militant lawmaker denounced the K-to-12 program, saying only “capitalist educators” were happy with the new basic curriculum.
Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said the program under the stewardship of Luistro is “one hell of a plan that will benefit no one but the private school owners and their banner men in the Education Department.”
“While most of our students, parents, and teachers are bewailing the full implementation of the K-to-12 program, greedy school owners are the only ones who seem happy, as they would have an opportunity to further increase profits through the added years of schooling and other side effects of the new curriculum,” Ridon said.
He added that the Education Department appeared to be forcing more students to enroll in private schools in the final roll-out year of the K-to-12 program.
The department earlier told Congress that the public school system can accommodate 800,000 to 1.1 million senior high school students next year, but said it expected 1.6 million students to reach senior high school by that time.
“DepEd expects that the remaining 800,000 or so students will be absorbed by what they call as ‘non-DepEd schools.’ The bulk of such schools are private institutions that charge high tuition rates,” Ridon said.
In some cities such as Makati, Caloocan and Paranaque, only private schools are allowed to offer senior high school, he said.
“So we see what DepEd is secretly after: jack up the cost of private school education through relentless tuition hikes while also ensuring the transfer of many students from public to private schools due to the incapacity of public schools to absorb all incoming senior high school students,” Ridon said.
Under these conditions, more students will be forced to enroll in expensive private schools.
“It’s a devilish plan that ensures that private schools will have a greater number of enrollees, and consequently, higher profit, all to the disadvantage of thousands of students,” Ridon said.
“Ultimately, this can lead to a situation wherein close to a million students will have no choice but to drop out as they cannot be accommodated by the public school system, and their families cannot sustain their enrolment in private schools,” Ridon said.