LAST week’s announcement that the Department of Education (DepEd) is actively considering substantial changes to the K-12 program is welcome news for many. I have always been against K-12 which I consider to be ill-thought out and inadequately debated by the Legislative Branch of Government.
Nevertheless, we should not forget that Republic Act 10533 was passed with little demur by our elected representatives. Only one senator voted against the Act. We salute Senator Sonny Trillanes for having the foresight to recognize the fundamental flaws in K-12.
The overblown enthusiasm for K-12 as exemplified by then DepEd Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro has, it seems, found many articulate detractors.
Luistro made many exaggerated claims for K-12 and it is disappointing that he met with very little articulate opposition from legislators.
For example, there was the promise that K-12 would produce job-ready senior high school graduates. This was never likely to happen. There is no evidence that K-12 proponents had rigorous discussions with employers who are not slow to criticize educationists who do not demonstrate that they have a realistic understanding of the workplace.
There was some attempt to place students in ‘on the job training’ but the process was usually unsatisfactory. Employers saw ‘OJT’ as being of little relevance to the world of work.
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A major component of K-12 was to increase high school from four to six years. “Mandatory” was the term used at the time. Legislators need to understand that the progress towards democracy in the Philippines is sufficient to make words like ‘compulsory’ or ‘mandatory’ to be anathema to many voters.
I believe that K-12 has caused the Liberal Party to lose electoral support. Now is the time to the Party to publicize its views on K-12. Is it prepared to defend the indefensible or will it come clean and withdraw support for RA 10533?
It is not clear to me whether the current administration is entitled to make wholesale changes to a Republic Act that was passed in 2013. The fact that K-12 does not now seem to have articulate support is, however, relevant.
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte makes the important point that the perennial problem of providing Constitutionally specified quality education is not being met by K-12.
As far as education policy is concerned, it looks as though everything can be considered.
For me, the most important aspect is to try to improve the quality of our education.
We want “globally competitive” to mean something and not be used as empty rhetoric./PN
