MANILA – The Department of Education (DepEd) said it will continue the K-12 program as scrapping it will be “detrimental” to the country’s education system.
The DepEd added it cannot arbitrarily discontinue the program mandated by Republic Act 10533 or “Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.”
“The claims circulating online came after news of the Commission on Higher Education’s plan to ‘review and change’ the system for its K-12 transition program was misconstrued to mean the implementation of the entire K-12 program. These two are not one and the same,” DepEd said.
“As with any law, the implementation, amendment, expansion, or repeal of the K-12 program is within the ambit of the legislative branch of the government comprised of the Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives,” it added.
The DepEd stressed around 2.7-million students benefited from the program after they received “free or highly-subsidized” senior high school education in public and private schools nationwide.
Kabataan Party-list representative Sarah Elago filed a resolution to stop the program after CHED admitted defects encountered like the stalled implementation of projects and the non-provision of salary for project-based researchers.
“We have said time and again that the K-12 program will not answer the country’s declining quality of education,” Elago said after filing House Resolution No. 2557.
“Kung mayroon mang nagawa ang K-12, ito ay pag-eksperimentuhan, pagkakitaan, pahirapan at paasahin ang mga kabataan. Dagdag na taon, dagdag na bayarin at dagdag na pasakit lamang, at wala ang mga pangako ng maayos na edukasyon at trabaho,” she added.
Elago said the “genuine solution” to improve the quality of education is the “promotion of an educational system that would truly address the needs of the Filipino youth and Philippine society in general.” /PN
