The Enhanced K+12 Basic Education Program in the Philippines has been officially started. It has been initiated by the Aquino administration where students will have to undergo a new system of education.

This program will require all incoming students to enroll into two more years of basic education. Thus, the K+12 System will basically include the Universal kindergarten, 6 years of elementary, 4 years of junior high school with an additional 2 years for senior high school.

Moreover, the program aims to uplift the quality of education in the Philippines in order for graduates to be easily employed. The program also aims to meet the standards required for professionals who would want to work abroad.

Most importantly, the system aims to fully enhance and develop the students in order for them to be well-prepared especially in emotional and cognitive aspects. Through this, graduates will be able to face the pressures of their future workplace.

However, not all are in favor of the K+12 Education. There are students complaining of the additional years and there are parents who are not in favor of the additional expenses. But indeed, it is an undeniable fact that additional years in the education system will really require more budgets not just from the government but from the parents as well.

Aside from this, students will need additional classrooms, school supplies and facilities. The program would need more qualified teachers as well.

I personally believe that the K+12 Education in the Philippines would uplift the quality of lifestyle of the Filipino people. But, this could not be done without being prepared. And since the program has already been implemented, what is more important now is for students to do their best and study despite of the lack of facilities. Nothing is impossible when we persist.

As for teachers, continue to teach with love and love what you teach despites of your own personal triumphs and economic crisis. Always remember that the future of the students depends upon you.

As for the parents who have been doing their best in pursuing their child’s education, remember that the program aims what’s best for your children. It will help your children to become globally competitive and if your children will succeed, you will also succeed.

There may be a lot of factors to consider for the K+12 Education to succeed. But as long as we open our minds to change and we will take it on a positive way, we will definitely attain our most-aspired educational standards which will play a great role in our country’s development and will therefore, uplift us from poverty.

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) boldly started its ambitious K (Kindergarten) to 12 basic education curriculum program in 2011 despite budget and resource shortages in public schools.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the initial rollout of the K+12 basic education program with the implementation of universal primary or pre-school education for five-year-olds in the Philippines was a “defining moment” for the administration of President Aquino, as it seeks to implement reforms with deep impact on the welfare of Filipino children and the youth.

“The implementation of K to 12 beginning with our 2011 kinder enrollment of 1.7 million is a defining moment in our care for 5-year-old children and will surely have a significant impact in our achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education,” he said.

Despite all the criticisms hurled at the initial implementation of the program, Luistro stressed that it was a showcase of political will by the Aquino administration in pursuit of real education reforms.

However, teachers’ groups such as the Teachers Dignity Coalition and the Alliance of Concerned Teachers lambasted DepEd over the implementation of the program, saying inadequate funds allotted to the set-up of kindergarten schools prevented DepEd from building enough classrooms and compensate kindergarten school teachers properly.

But Luistro rationalized that his department “achieved a highly satisfactory level of about 85 percent in our first year of implementation as problems and/or shortages are confined to less than 5 percent of elementary schools.”

“Any educational reform initiative requires political will and will never be perfect,” he noted.

But with DepEd getting a budget of more than P31 billion for 2012, the Education secretary vowed to address all these problems in the coming years.

DepEd started the public kindergarten schools in the opening of school year 2011-2012 last June, serving as the initial salvo of its K+12 program, which aims to add two years of senior high school to the current 10-year basic education curriculum which has only six years of elementary and four years of high school, aside from the compulsory pre-school for students entering Grade 1.

Luistro earlier stressed that the universal kindergarten program component of K+12 was for the country to meet the Education For All goal by improving the participation rate among students.

Making pre-school or kindergarten mandatory, he said, was a strategy in meeting the Education For All goal, in view of studies that showed a child’s going through pre-school resulted in better learning competencies to prepare him or her for entering Grade 1.

Studies have shown that children unprepared for learning in Grade 1 were prone to drop out eventually.

LEARNING CURVE: New school buildings of the New Ormoc City National High School(top) and Sibol school in Leyte.

The next phase of K+12 will be launched middle of 2012 when DepEd introduces the enhanced curriculum for Grade 7.

The opening of school year 2012-2013 will be the launch of Grade 7, which is basically the current first year high school level.

DepEd, under the Aquino administration and the leadership of Luistro, has shown its determination in adding two years to the basic education curriculum, seeing it as a vital reform measure that will solve deficiencies in core competencies in the subjects of English, Math and Science among a majority of Filipino high school graduates, as well as to gain recognition for Filipino professionals among employers abroad.

The Philippines is one of only two countries in the world that has a 10-year basic education curriculum. The other is fellow Third World country Myanmar.

A consequence of the 10-year basic education curriculum of the country is the unwillingness of companies abroad to recognize Filipino professionals such as engineers and nurses, demanding that these professionals go through additional schooling and then undergo licensure examinations before being recognized as engineers, nurses and accountants.

Not just K + 12

Aside from the rollout of the public kindergarten schools, Luistro said DepEd posted other significant achievements this year.

He said that the Aquino administration’s promptness in passing an appropriations budget for 2011 and 2012 enabled DepEd to “obligate” funds for the building of classrooms and the procurement of textbooks.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro reads to a class of attentive students.

“The textbook budget for 2010 and 2011 have been obligated and delivery to schools will commence by first quarter of 2012, achieving 1:1 student-to-textbook ratio for each of the five core subjects by June 2012,” Luistro projected.

He also expressed confidence in the DepEd’s capability to push through with K+12 and address the shortage of resources in public schools with a more than P31-billion increase in their budget for 2012, from P207 billion in 2011 to P238.8 billion in 2012.

“DepEd intends to address the current requirements and shortages in the next two years so that it can focus its resources in later years towards addressing the significant resource requirements for the full implementation of K to 12 in 2016,” Luistro said earlier.

DepEd readies K+12 curricula for next year

The Department of Education (DepEd) plan to extend the basic education course by two years is set to take off next school year with new curricula developed for Grade 1 and 1st Year High School in implementation of the K+12 (Kindergarten plus 12 years) program.

K+12 aims to raise the country’s basic education course to world standards and produce high school graduates ready to be employed even without a college degree.

The DepEd started the program with a kindergarten curriculum this year, reaching out to 5-year-olds to prepare them for entering the grades and curbing the early dropout rate.

“Voluntary kindergarten was introduced this school year to lay the groundwork for universal kindergarten in subsequent years. The department, along with its partners (education stakeholders), has also made considerable progress in the development of the K to 12 curriculum,” Tina Ganzon, director of the DepEd communications unit, said in response to e-mailed questions from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Restructuring

The Inquirer was not able to interview top DepEd officials because they were all out of the country.

“The DepEd is gearing up for the introduction of the new Grades 1 and 7 (1st year high school) curricula in school year 2012-2013,” Ganzon said.

According to the DepEd plan unveiled on Oct. 5 last year, K+12, alternately called K-12 (K to 12) to represent a continuum, would restructure the basic education system with a required kindergarten, six years in elementary (Grades 1-6), four years of junior high school (Grades 7-10) and two years of senior high (Grades 11-12).

Students can choose an area of specialization in the final two years, whether it be in the performing arts, vocational training, sports, agriculture, among others.

The new curricula for Grades 2 and 8 will be introduced next in 2013. The first batch of senior high school students will enter Grade 11 in school year 2016-2017. The DepEd aims to graduate the first batch of 12th graders in March 2018.

Education officials continue to hold consultations with parents, students, businessmen and other education stakeholders across the country, the DepEd said.

“Subsequent consultation sessions will be conducted in the succeeding months to provide feedback to stakeholders on how the K to 12 leadership has addressed their concerns, and share the updated details about the K to 12 curriculum and its implementation,” Ganzon said.

Are you ready for K+12?By INA HERNANDO-MALIPOT

May 13, 2011, 12:50pm

MANILA, Philippines — It's all systems go with the Department of Education (DepEd) for the implementation of the Enhanced K+12 Basic Education Program, with the initial phase set in motion this coming school year by offering the Universal Kindergarten Program in 38,000 public schools nationwide. Grade 1 and first year high school students in SY 2011-2012 will be the initial beneficiaries.

After two months of regional consultations, Education Secretary Armin Luistro revealed that the proposal was able to get support from 1,274 out of 1,417 participants or 77 percent in the 17 regions.

Among the stakeholders, DepEd found that the most supportive group are the students. The program got 100 percent support from Regions IVA, IVB, V, VII, VIII, XI, and XIII (Caraga).

But Luistro admitted that there are still many sentiments against it. Stakeholders in Region IX, for example, presented a lot of concerns and reservations. Out of 45 attendees, only six or 13 percent showed support to the program. In the NCR, the K+12 was able to get support from 67 out of the 94 participants or a grade of 71 percent.

K+12 adds two years to the current 10-year basic education cycle purportedly to make it at par with global standards and be able to produce employable high school graduates.

DepEd’s proposed model called “K-6-4-2” involves Kindergarten, six years of elementary education, four years of junior high school or Grades seven to 10, and two years of senior high school or Grades 11 to 12. The two years of senior high school intend to provide time for students to consolidate acquired academic skills and competencies. The curriculum to be used also aims to allow specializations in science and technology, music and arts, agriculture and fisheries, sports, business, entrepreneurship and the like.

Everyone gets a say

Since the K+12 proposal was announced in October last year, DepEd has exerted efforts to get opinion on its implementation through consultative in February to March participated in by students, parents, teachers, administratorsfrom both private and public schools, and representatives from the government and the private sectors.\

In the consultations, participants were oriented on the program and its purpose, the state of education in the country, the efforts of the government to improve the quality of education, the basis of K+12 program, and DepEd’s K+12 proposal and the target implementation period.

Suggestions from participants were documented to help develop the program further.

Biggest concern

Luistro reported that some concerns raised during the meetings were mainly on the political and financial sustainability of the program, the legislative and budget concerns, doubts in the unified implementation by DepEd, Commission on Higher Education and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority as well as doubts related to the implementation of K+12 guidelines.

“Other legitimate concerns that we have documented include doubts on inter-agency collaboration from local communities as well as the concern on the amount of time spent by students in schools,” Luistro cited.

But among the biggest concerns was related to curriculum. To address this, DepEd is fine-tuning the curriculum to ensure that it will contain only the essentials. “We want a curriculum that is packed with topics our students need and a curriculum that would allow a high school graduate to get employment,” the DepEd secretary said.

Doubts

Earlier, DepEd projected that the K+12 program would need P43.67 billion to fund additional classrooms, teachers, textbooks, and repairs of school facilities. Based on initial assessment, the government needs 103,000 teachers but can only afford to hire 10,000 and has to build some 152,500 classrooms to ease crowding in schools and reach the ideal single-shift class schedule with at most 45 students per classroom but can only build 80,000 classrooms.

This lack of resources, among other education and teacher-related concerns, is the very same reason why a group of public school teachers remains critical of K+12.

Emmalyn Policarpio, spokesperson of Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) spokesperson, said that DepEd should address the backlog on resource shortages first before they embark on an ‘’ambitious program.” TDC, a 30,000-strong group, has been opposed to the program since it was announced.

“We are not convinced that this program will succeed,” said Policarpio, who is also an elementary school teacher in Valenzuela. “The DepEd should first persuade the legislature and the President to allocate more funds in education sector.”

The League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Anakbayan also expressed dismay on DepEd’s plan. According to Ayla Garduce of the ‘No To K+12 Alliance’, no matter how the government “deodorize” the proposed program, “the fact remains that it will aggravate the financial burden of parents. The education budgets for the past years were unable to resolve the ballooning shortages in basic education,” Garduce said.

LFS national chairperson added that instead of the additional two years, the government should allocate greater subsidy to education.

Understanding the K+12

“I want to clarify that contrary to what others say, there will be no additional years in elementary, the additional years would be in high school,” Luistro said.

The implementation of the program, explained Luistro, will be phased starting with the offering of universal kindergarten this school year. “By school year 2012 to 2013, the new curriculum will be offered to incoming Grade 1 as well as to incoming junior high school students.” The target of DepEd is to put in place the necessary infrastructure and other necessary arrangements needed to provide Senior High School (SHS) education by 2016 to 2017.

To support the implementation of the K+12 program, private schools also expressed desire to strengthen partnership by “lending” its teachers, classrooms, facilities and textbooks to public school students.

According to Federation of Associations of Private Schools and Administrators (FAPSA) president Eleazardo Kasilag, private schools may be tapped for the K+12 cycle since the priority is teachers, classrooms, facilities and textbooks. “DepEd need not hire teachers nor build additional room as we can absorb the students to our joy and relief,” he said.

DepEd is confident

Now that the House Bill No. 3826 or Kindergarten Education Act which institutionalizes kindergarten education has been approved by the House of Representatives, DepEd is confident that the K+12 will be fully implemented in the next six years.

Luistro also expressed confidence that the necessary Amendment of Education Act of 1982 will be passed in order to institutionalize the 12-year basic education cycle and to get the necessary funding from the national budget.

“In the end, we hope that the benefits of the proposal will far outweigh the additional costs that will be incurred by both the government and families,” Luistro ended.

Comments:

I agree 100% to K 12 program. My concern is after implementation. Hopefully the government will provide adequate funding as at present the public schools are already overcrowded and need more classrooms and improvement of facilities. Other programs like CHAD is out of funds and private schools have not been reimbursed. The funds are nowhere to be found. Hopefully the present administration will not have the same problem of missing funds. Before we add more programs, let us clean up the budget mess first.

Armando B. Figueroa M.D.

When will the k12 be implemented? Thank you. @DepEd_PH: It has started with the implementation of Universal Kindergarten this school year.

How about the junior high and senior high? Thank you. @DepEd_PH: Incoming 1st year junior HS students next year will be the first batch of senior HS in 2016.

Please explain k12 further? @DepEd_PH: Kto12: There will still be 6 years of grade school (grades 1-6), 4 years of junior HS (grades 7-10) and 2 years of senior HS (grades 11-12).

Thus this mean no need for Prep or Nursery? It will be Kindergarten at 6yo then Grade 1 at 7yo? Please explain further. Thanks. @DepEd_PH: No ma'am Kindergarten is part of the program before entering grade 1.

Thanks. Very informative. Grade 1 is what age? @DepEd_PH: Grade 1 is 6 years old.

So there's 6 years of high school? @DepEd_PH: Yes, 4 years of junior HS and 2 years of senior HS

Who will be the first batch of the additional two years?@DepEd_PH: The incoming 1st year HS students next SY 2012-2013.

Just to clear things up - it will be implemented in public schools only? and why if so? @DepEd_PH: No, also private schools but since most already have grade 7, some adjustments have to be made.

What about those already with 18 years of schooling (K1-3, G1-7, 4 years of HS?)@DepEd_PH: No, also private schools but since most already have grade 7, some adjustments have to be made.

Graduate ng college walang trabaho, graduate ng k12 anu bentahe? @DepEd_PH: Senior HS will offer specializations/tech-voc skills to prepare the graduate for either a college degree or work.

Kulang sa classroom, kulang sa titser, dadagdagan pa ng taon, Solusyon ba yun? @DepEd_PH: Kto12 is just one of the many programs but we are continually working on addressing resource gaps.

On Kto12, Is our supply side ready for this? I'm referring the additional teachers and classroom that this program will need. @DepEd_PH: Additional infra and teachers will be needed starting 2016 so we are working towards addressing all resource gaps before then.

The enhanced K-12 program, or the Department of Education’s (DepEd) proposal to overhaul the basic and secondary education curriculum by adding two more years to the system is arguably one of the most drastic and controversial programs of the Aquino administration.

The program is proposed to start in school year 2012-2013 for Grade 1 and first year high school students with the target of full implementation by SY 2018-2019.

K-12 has been met with criticism from youth and student groups, teachers, parents and the academic community. The DepEd, for its part, appears determined to enact the program with its proposed budget catering mostly to preparing the grounds for its eventual implementation.

The DepEd argues that the K-12 program will be the solution to yearly basic education woes and the deteriorating quality of education. Critics, however, counteract that the education crisis needs to be addressed more fundamentally and adding more school years would only exacerbate the situation.

Dissecting K-12

The K-12 model is an educational system for basic and secondary education patterned after the United States, Canada, and some parts of Australia. The current basic education system is also an archetype of American schooling but with a 10-year cycle.

DepEd reasons that it is high time to adopt a K-12 system, attributing the low achievement scores and poor quality of basic education to the present school setup. Following wide protests over the proposal, the department released its official position defending K-12.

Below are the main arguments and corresponding counter-arguments from critics.

 

1. The K-12 will solve the annual growing number of out-of-school youth. Students and parents, however complain that it would be an added burden to poor families.

While public education is free, a political youth group estimates that a student would still need an average of P20,000 per school year to cover transportation, food, school supplies and other schooling expenses.

Also, based on the latest Family Income and Expenditure Survey, families prioritize spending for food and other basic needs over their children’s school needs. Two more years for basic education would inevitably translate to higher dropout rate.

2. The K-12 will address low achievement scores and poor academic performance of elementary and high school students. DepEd says that the poor quality of basic education is reflected in the low achievement scores of students. Results of the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), however, negate the connection of the number of years to the performance of students.

According to results of the TIMSS, the length of schooling does not necessarily mean better scores. In fact, some countries with the same or shorter school cycle garnered the highest scores while those implementing the K-12 model or more years of schooling got lower scores.

According to a study released by former Deputy Education Minister Abraham I. Felipe and Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE) Executive Director Carolina C. Porio, the DepEd’s arguments are “impressionistic and erroneous” because there is no clear correlation between the length of schooling and students’ performance.

The said study shows that fourth graders from Australia had respectable TIMSS scores despite having only one year of pre-schooling, while Morocco (two years of pre-school), Norway (three years) and Armenia and Slovenia (both four years) had lower scores than Australia. South Korea, which has the same length of basic education cycle as the Philippines, was among the top performers in the TIMSS, while those with longer pre-schooling (Ghana, Morocco, Botswana and Saudi Arabia, three years) had lower test scores.

Test scores of Filipino students, meanwhile, were lower than those garnered by all 13 countries with shorter elementary cycles, namely, Russia, Armenia, Latvia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Moldova, Italy, Egypt and Iran.

In the high school level, Singapore that also has a four-year high school cycle, got the highest score. Ironically, the Philippines got a lower score together with countries that have longer high school cycles like South Africa, Chile, Palestine, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

For the pre-college level, the Philippines also got a low score, but so did the United States, which has a 15-year basic and secondary education cycle. Students from Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, all with shorter education cycles, got higher scores than America students.

3. The DepEd has enough resources to implement the K-12. Interestingly, countries whose students got high scores in the TIMSS were the ones whose governments allotted high public spending for education.

Despite nominal increases in the total education budget, the government has been spending less per capita on education. The real spending per capita per day dropped to P6.85 in 2009.

From 2001 to 2009, education’s portion in the national budget has steadily decreased. This pales in comparison to neighboring countries – Malaysia, 7.4 percent and Thailand, 4 percent. It is also lower than the four percent average for all countries that were included in the World Education Indicators in 2006. The country is also lagging behind its Asian counterparts in public expenditure on education as a percentage of total public spending.

In a statement, President Benigno Aquino III said that his administration is prioritizing education and, as proof, the DepEd budget will increase by P32 billion in 2011.

However, according to Anakbayan spokesperson Charisse Banez, “Even if you combine the DepEd and SUCs (state college and universities) budgets, it will only equal to three percent of the GDP, a far cry from the six percent GDFP-amount advocated by the United Nations.”

The UN Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) recommend that governments spend at least six percent of their GDP for education.

Former Education secretary Mona Valisno stated in a separated study that DepEd needs at least P100 billion to fully address the shortage of 93,599 classrooms and 134,400 seats and P63 million for textbooks and scholarships.

Proponents of the program allude to the experience of St. Mary’s Sagada – a school implementing K-12 that has been topping the National Achievement Test in Mountain Province. However, aside from the K-12, the school also has a 1:20 teacher to student ratio and is not suffering any sort of shortage in faculty or facilities.

Critics of the K-12 assert that while government resources have been found wanting and insufficient for the present 10-year cycle, how will it be able to afford to fund a K-12 model?

 

4. The K-12 will open doors for more jobs for the youth, even without a college diploma.

DepEd says that a K-12 program will improve the chances for youth employment as it is aimed to improve technical-vocational skills through focusing on arts, aquaculture and agriculture, among others. The K-12, it further states, will ensure that students graduating at the age of 18 will have jobs, thus making them “employable” even without a college degree.

However, critics are quick to note that the Philippines, that has a predominantly young population, also has the highest overall unemployment rate in East Asia and the Pacific Region. According to World Bank study, the country also has the highest youth unemployment rate. Young Filipino workers are twice as likely to be unemployed than those in older age groups as they figure in the annual average of at least 300,000 new graduates that add up to the labor force.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported in 2008 that 50 percent of the unemployed 2.7 million nationwide were aged 15 to 24. Of these, 461,000 or 35 percent had college degrees while about 700,000 unemployed youth either finished high school or at least reached undergraduate levels.

Therefore, the persistent high unemployment rates, may not be necessarily linked with the present 10-year cycle but instead with the country’s existing economic system and the government’s job generation policies.

 

5. Filipino graduates will be automatically recognized as “professionals” abroad. In the present 10-year cycle, the DepEd argues, the quality of education is reflected in the “inadequate preparation of high school graduates for the world of work or entrepreneurship or higher education.”

What the K-12 program aims to achieve, therefore, is to reinforce cheap semi-skilled labor for the global market. With young workers, mostly semi-skilled and unskilled workers now making up an estimated 10.7 percent of the total Filipino labor migrant population, it comes as no surprise then that the government is now programming its youth to servicing needs of the global market.

Labor migration, however, has resulted in the brain drain of Filipino skilled workers and professionals. Ironically, while the DepEd and the government mouths a so-called “professionalization” of the young labor force in foreign

markets, their significance to domestic development and nation-building is sadly being undervalued at the expense of providing cheap labor under the guise of providing employment.

While proponents and advocates hail the K-12 model as the “saving grace” of youth unemployment, critics argue that it will only aggravate the country’s dependence on labor export and the inflow of remittances that do not necessarily contribute to substantive and sustainable nation-building.

 

A Filipino education

Lastly, the DepEd justifies the K-12 model by saying that the present short basic education program affects the human development of Filipino students.

Ultimately, regardless of whichever “model”, what the youth and country direly needs is for the development and establishment of an education system that caters to the needs of the Filipino youth and the society in general.

The crisis of the Philippine education system, in all levels, is stemmed not on the superficial, in this case the number of schooling years, but rather on the conditions and foundation on which it subsists. Unless the government addresses in earnest poor public spending, high costs of schooling, the predominance of a colonial curriculum, lack of transparency and accountability amid widespread corruption within the sector and the development of the country’s science and technology for domestic development, all efforts will remain on the surface.

And neither 10 nor 12 years would make much of difference.

MANILA, Philippines—If you’re a graduating sixth grader this March, then you may as well be among the first to undergo two more years of public high school.

Incoming first year public high school students in June are the first batch of students projected to enter the additional years of senior high school under the Department of Education’s  K-12 (Kindergarten to 12), a DepEd official said.

This as DepEd pursues the phased implementation of K-12, a flagship education program of the Aquino administration that aims to improve the quality of Filipino high school graduates by giving them more time to learn.

The K-12 model involves Kindergarten, six years of elementary education, four years of junior high school (Grades 7 to 10) and two years of senior high school (Grades 11 to 12). The two years of senior high school intend to provide students time to consolidate acquired academic skills and competencies relevant to the job market.

DepEd Assistant Secretary for Programs and Projects Elena Ruiz said high school freshmen next year are programmed to enter Grade 11 by school year 2016-2017 under the K-12 implementation plan.

“By 2016, we will have our first batch of senior high school, or Grade 11 … That’s the batch entering first year high school in June. By March 2018, we will have our first graduates of the two additional years in senior high school,” Ruiz told the INQUIRER.

If all goes as planned, this would mean there will be no high school graduation on March 2016, as all fourth year high school students will transition into senior high school, Ruiz explained.

This would, however, require the passage of legislation allowing for 12 years in basic public education, currently pending in Congress.

“When this (K-12) is passed into law, the length of time in high school in the Philippines will be six years. So by 2016, the fourth year class will not yet graduate,” said Ruiz.

Through two additional years in senior high, DepEd aims to provide students with specialized training in their area of interest, whether they hope to work after high school or pursue college or vocational training.

Ruiz said DepEd is confident that it has enough support among lawmakers as K-12 is part of President Aquino’s education reform agenda.

“We believe our lawmakers see the wisdom of the program because they also believe in global competitiveness,” Ruiz said.

“They’re also aware of the kind of graduates that we yield in high school and in college. We see very strong support in the government starting with the President,” she added.

Even pending an enabling law, DepEd has already started laying the groundwork for full-cycle implementation of K-12, starting with the institutionalization of public kindergarten in the current school year and the introduction of a new Grade 1 and First Year high school curriculum by June.

Ruiz said DepEd has set teacher training in the new K-12 curriculum for a smooth transition in classrooms.

The K-12 program seeks to level Philippine education with the rest of the world, with 12 years of basic schooling a global standard. Only the Philippines, Angola and Djibouti continue to have a 10-year basic education cycle, DepEd said.

“It may be viewed as additional cost right now but you have to look at the long run, how it would improve the value of a student after graduation,” Ruiz said.

K-12 and the Future of Philippine Education

Do you think that adding two years of high school will improve Philippine education as a whole?

We don’t know yet but K-12 is already on its way to prove it.

Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Armin Luistro recently revealed that the K-12 basic education program will take-off next school year 2012-2013. The said program is comprised of universal kindergarten education, 6 years of elementary education (Grades 1 to 6), 4 years of junior high school (Grades 7 to 10) and an additional 2 years for senior high school (Grades 11 and 12). Although our country started out late (Philippines and Myanmar are the only countries in the world that still implements the 10-year education program), the said program has faced a lot of criticisms both from government officials and concerned citizens even before it was approved. K-12 has its own pros and cons and for a Third World country like the Philippines, such initiative have so much potential in bringing progress to the people as long as rampant issues in the educational system will be weeded out in the process.

One of the major pros that the program has to offer is that additional years of education will make Filipino students more mature, competent, well-rounded, and globally competitive. This is true to a certain extent especially that the  traditional educational system is in fact 12 years of quality education reduced into 10 years of congested curriculum. Our students will benefit a lot from this but  supporters of this program should also take into account the financial burden it will bring both to the government and parents alike. Additional years of education is tantamount to an extension of agony for families who are also struggling to make ends meet on a daily basis. In addition to that, the quality of teachers and educational facilities should be of utmost priority if we want to really experience the benefits of this program once we reach the year 2016. Furthermore, quality education will never be possible if the government will not back it up with financial support. If education will remain as the top priority for the national

budget and fight against corruption will maintain its momentum, chances are we will get the fruits of our labor in due time.

According to the briefer prepared by DepEd, K-12 has also a potential to reduce unemployment rate in our country which will benefit everyone in the long run. It will be “minus 2″ instead of “plus 2″ for those families who cannot afford a college education but still wish to have their children find a good paying job.  Students can either choose to pursue a college degree or just finish Grade 12 of high school to find a job. If the latter will be his choice, it will be like completing the first two years of college and then dropping out to find a job immediately, the reason why it is called the “minus 2″ benefit. However, it has been part of our culture to believe that getting a college degree both brings honor to the family and a sure ticket to success for the graduate. Most companies, if not all, require a person to be at least a college graduate to be qualified in their entry-level positions. It’s not that easy to bring major changes in conceptions and policies but the government should not use K-12 to promote the notion that you don’t need to finish college just to get a job, or else it will give a false assurance and eventually increase the country’s drop-out rate.

K-12, as a whole, brings with it a lot of potential to bring significant changes in our educational system. But whether the change will be constructive or destructive, will all depend on the government’s strategies and cooperation of the public sector. We have no choice but to embrace changes to move forward and progress as a nation. Let’s all hope for the best but let’s also remember that most of the time, quality is more important than quantity and as an editorial put it, we need to have better education, not more education. K-12 is a milestone for all of us and one big step for the Filipinos because in the end, education will always stay as one of the best ways to rise above poverty and reach for the top.

A major change in our country’s educational landscape is about to take place: the Department of Education (DepEd) is launching the K-12 curriculum this coming June.

According to President Benigno S. Aquino, “We need to add two years to our basic education. Those who can afford pay up to fourteen years of schooling before university. Thus, their children are getting into the best universities and the best jobs after graduation. I want at least 12 years for our public school children to give them an even chance at succeeding.” In line with this, the 1987 Philippine Constitution states that, “The State shall establish, maintain, and support a complete, adequate, and integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and the society.“ Such mandate gives justice to the basic rights of every Filipino child: the right to quality education and the right to a quality life.

What is K-12? According to the K to 12 Deped Primer (2011), “K-12 means “Kindergarten and the 12 years of elementary and secondary education.” Kindergarten points to the 5-year old child who undertakes the standardized curriculum for preschoolers. Elementary education refers to 6 years of primary school (Grades 1-6) while secondary education means four years of junior high school (Grades 7-10 or HS Year 1-4). In addition to this, two years are now allotted for senior high school (Grades 11-12 or HS Year 5-6).

Prof. Lorina Calingasan of the College of Education in UP Diliman explains that “K-12 means extending basic education by two years, so instead of having a high school graduate at 16 (years old), we will have high schoolers graduating at 18.”

The DepEd discussion paper (2010) on the enhanced K-12 basic education program explains that this new setup “seeks to provide a quality 12-year basic education program that each Filipino is entitled to” (p.5). Furthermore, the purpose is not simply to add 2 more years of education “but more importantly to enhance the basic education curriculum” (p.5).

What is the rationale for this program?There is an urgent need to enhance the quality of basic education in our country as seen in the education outcomes of

Filipino students and the comparative disadvantage of the Philippines with regard to other countries. The following data would support this explanation:

At present, the Philippines is the only country in Asia and among the three remaining countries in the world that uses a 10-year basic education cycle. According to a presentation made by the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO-INNOTECH) on Additional Years in Philippine Basic Education (2010), the comparative data on duration of Basic and Pre-University Education in Asia shows that the Philippines allots 10 years not just for the basic education cycle but also for the pre-university education while all the other countries have either 11 or 12 years in their basic education cycle.    

Achievement scores highlight our students’ poor performance in national examinations. The National Achievement Test (NAT) results for grade 6 in SY 2009-2010 showed only a 69.21% passing rate while the NAT results for high school is at a low 46.38%. Moreover, international tests results in 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science study (TIMSS) show that the Philippines ranked 34th out of 38 countries in HS Math and 43rd out of 46 countries in HS II Science. Moreover, the Philippines ranked the lowest in 2008 even with only the science high schools joining the Advanced Mathematics category.

The present curriculum is described as congested. This means that students do not get enough time to perform tasks because the curriculum is designed to be taught in a span of 12 years and not 10 years. The more obvious result of this is the fact that most high school students graduate without the readiness to take upon higher education or employment. These students are not equipped with the basic skills or competencies needed at work. Furthermore, the short duration of our basic education program puts Filipinos who are interested to either work or study abroad at a disadvantage. This is because other countries see our 10-year program as incomplete, which then, causes Filipino graduates to not be considered as professionals abroad.

Given all these supporting facts, there is indeed a need to improve the quality of basic education by enhancing it and by expanding the basic education cycle.

 

What is the vision of this program?Records will show that as early as 1925, there were already efforts to improve the basic education curriculum and recommendations have been put forward since then. Thus, this idea of adding years to the present curriculum is not new.

The K-12 Curriculum envisions “holistically developed learners with 21st century skills” (Deped Primer, 2011). At the core of this basic education program is “the complete human development of every graduate” (DepEd discussion paper, p.6). This further means that every student would have an understanding of the world around him and a passion for life-long learning while addressing every student’s basic learning needs: “learning to learn, the acquisition of numeracy, literacy, and scientific and technological knowledge as applied to daily life” (p.6). In addition to this, every graduate is envisioned to have respect for human rights and would aim to become “Maka-Diyos, Maka-tao, Makabansa, Maka-kalikasan” (p.6)

The K-12 vision aims to have relevance in the socio-economic realm, as well. This means that the students would understand their role as productive members of the country. Such vision can only be possible through an enhanced curriculum.

 

What is the K-12 curriculum all about?According to the DepEd discussion paper (2010), the K-12 curriculum aims to enable every child “to achieve mastery of core competencies and skills” (p.6) and develop tracks based on the student’s interests and competencies. The focus of K-12 is twofold: curriculum enhancement and transition management.

 Curriculum enhancement – With the K-6-4-2 model, the 2 years for senior high school is aimed at giving the students time to strengthen competencies and academic skills. The curriculum will also provide specializations in the following: science and technology, music and arts, agriculture and fisheries, sports, business and entrepreneurship, etc, depending on the occupation or career that they intend to pursue. These two years will build on skills that are essential to their chosen field.

Transition management - The DepEd mentions in their discussion paper (2010) that they are “preparing a carefully sequenced implementation plan to ensure smooth transition with the least disruption” in the current program.

According to Education Secretary Br. Armin A. Luistro, the new curriculum is focused more on the learners and not on the teacher. Luistro said, “We are making it a real learning experience for the students, meaning, it will be less on memorization and more encouraging of critical thinking”. In addition to this, a mother tongue-based multi-lingual education (MTB-MLE) will be used for instruction in Kinder to Grade 3 classes after studies showed that students learn more when their language at home is used in discussing the lessons in school. Also, there will be less contact time as Grade 1 pupils will only attend school for half a day instead of 6 hours. Luistro explains, “It is important that our learners develop that natural love for learning and not feel that it is something imposed on them…we will reduce it to four hours to make education less stressful and more enjoyable.”

For the first year high school curriculum, Luistro mentions that the lessons will be more interactive and meaningful to everyday life. This means that Science will be reflected in terms of its practical use. He further explains, “as students go up the ladder, we want them to learn skills that are being demanded by employers while at the same time giving them the chance to appreciate and enjoy the lessons”. For instance, Luistro stresses that Science is to be integrated in all learning areas since it is a complex subject. He further expounds, “the focus of early education (Kinder to Grade 2) should be the fundamental skills and literacy of the pupils to develop better comprehension for more complicated subjects such as science”.

A study done by SEAMEO points out that the current curriculum allots about 1,100 minutes per week in elementary education to Science, which will change with the introduction of K-12. Luistro says, “this, coupled with teaching more competencies, imply congestion in our current elementary Science curriculum.” To address this, Science will now be integrated into the teaching of the Language, Mathematics and Health under MAPEH subjects beginning at Kindergarten.

Prof. Calingasan further explains that the K-12 curriculum for Social Studies will instead center on historical thinking skills rather than memory work (of dates, names, regions, capitals, etc) and accumulation of facts. She mentions examples of thinking skills such as “weighing the evidence of any information, using primary source evidence, analyzing and interpreting information, manifesting ethical standards (e.g., respect for differences, recognition of sources of evidence/idea). The K-12 Social Studies curriculum will  also teach students about local history.”

Who will be affected by this program?Prof. Calingasan explains that incoming Grade 1 and Grade 7 students by school year 2012-2013 are the ones who will be directly affected by the K-12 program. According to a DepEd briefer on K-12, the Department will begin implementing the curriculum in school year 2012-2013. As mentioned in the article, “the enhanced 12-year curriculum will be implemented starting with incoming Grade 1 students. Incoming freshmen of SY 2012-2013 will be the first beneficiaries of a free Senior High School education that will be made available by DepEd in public schools beginning in SY 2016-2017.”

What are the benefits of this program?Prof. Calingasan explains that “while parents may look at this as extended expense i.e., paying tuition for another 2

years in high school, this would offset itself since the competencies one would learn from the additional years are the same ones which the first two years of general education in college teach.” The DepEd primer (2011) specifies the benefits to individuals and families:1. A decongested academic workload, giving students more time to master competencies and for co-curricular activities and community involvement, thus, allowing for a more holistic development;2. Graduates will possess competencies and skills relevant to the job market and they will be prepared for higher education;3. K-12 is affordable;4. The potential annual earnings of a K-12 graduate will be higher compared to the earnings of a 10-year high school graduate;5. Graduates will be recognized abroad.

The benefits of K-12 curriculum for the society and the economy are:1. It will contribute to economic growth. Studies show that improvements in the quality of education increases GDP growth. According to the DepEd (2010), studies in the country have reflected that an additional year of school increases the earnings by 7.5% and that improvements in the quality of education will enable the GDP grow by 2-2.2%.2. It will facilitate the recognition of Filipino graduates and professionals in other countries3. A better educated society provides a sound foundation for long-term socio-economic development.

What will this mean for students and their future?”Definitely this will mean that they will graduate late (by present reference point), but on another perspective, will mean that they will be more mature when they enter college, or that they will be ready for work,” explains Prof. Calingasan.   

The DepEd, in its 2010 discussion paper, explains further that every graduate of the K-12 program will have “the courage, the drive, and the relevant skills to engage in work and have a productive life” (p.6). This means that every graduate is ready to take upon the world as he is prepared holistically to meet those challenges.

The goal of the K-12 curriculum is to create a purposeful basic education system that will “produce productive, responsible citizens equipped with the essential competencies and skills for both life-long learning and employment” (p.7).

To summarize, the K-12 curriculum speaks about hope and change for the country. As our culture puts great value on education, it is about time that our national government supports this fully. The K-12 honors every Filipino child’s right to better future as it is designed to “develop a learner who possesses a healthy mind and body; has a solid moral and spiritual grounding; has essential knowledge and skills for lifelong learning and self-actualization; engages in critical thinking and creative problem solving; contributes to the development of a progressive, just, and humane society; is proud to be a Filipino and appreciates the beauty around him/her and cares for the environment for a sustainable future.” 

Indeed, K-12 is every Filipino child’s future.

References:Department of Education. (2010). Discussion Paper on the Enhanced K +12 Basic Education Program. Department of Education (2011). K to 12 Basic Education Program PrimerQuismundo, T. (2011, October 7) DepEd readies K +12 curricula for next year. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved from http://multilingualphilippines.com/?p=5350DepEd Updates. Retrieved from http://www.deped.gov.ph/

Department of Education. (2010). Briefer on the enhanced k12 basic education program. Retrieved from http://www.gov.ph/2010/11/02/briefer-on-the-enhanced-k12-basic-education-program/