SCRAPPING K-12 NOT TOO LATE BY HERBERT VEGO As published in auhor’s column in Panay News, Nov. 19, 2014 issue EARLY this year, this corner applauded Senator Antonio Trillanes for recommending the suspension of the implementation of the K-12 program of the Department of Education (Dep-Ed) until the government would have solved its current infrastructure problems. In fact, to this day, when more than a year has passed since super typhoon Yolanda struck, there are still thousands of damaged classrooms awaiting either repair or replacement. Trillanes’ call has fallen on deaf ears. And the senator has since then kept quiet As everybody knows, the on-going K-12 program or the Enhanced Education Act of 2013 -- which was passed sans adequate public hearings -- requires compulsory one-year kindergarten and two additional years of high school. A number of college officials and instructors have articulated their desire to scrap the K-12, believing that the government is unprepared to solve the threatened retrenchment of about 85,000 college professors and employees when the first batch of K-12 students enroll in grade 11 (the equivalent of 5th year high school) in 2016. Discarding the K-12 would enable today’s third year students to graduate in 2016 and enroll in college thereafter. On the other hand, the K-12 “architect” in the person of Department of Education (Dep-Ed) Secretary Armin Luistro assumes that “we have already been left behind.” He sounded ashamed when he said that only the Philippines and Myanmar still make do with only10 years of elementary-to-secondary education, instead of 12 years. This corner begs to disagree. Myanmar may have lagged behind in producing intelligent graduates in 10 years, but the Philippines has not. Otherwise, Luistro himself would have been “half-baked.” Having made a success out of himself, he is a living refutation of his assumption. Shouldn’t we be proud that we hurdle in only 10 years what others take a snail’s pace to finish? The longer a student stays in school, the higher the cost of his education, which could eventually aggravate, rather than solve, the “idiotization” of the youth the moment he quits. It’s because each peso added to the cost of education is also added burden to the poor parents who could hardly feed their kids three meals a day. The records at the Department of Education show that, out of every 100 students who enroll in elementary school, only 58 make it to high school. Of these 58, only 33 enroll in college. And of these 33, only 14 finally graduate – an indication of “surrender” on the part of their parents. On the other hand, if a Filipino college graduate goes abroad to work as caregiver, gasoline boy, security guard or domestic helper, it’s not because he or she has not undergone K-12. It’s probably because as a “sikyu” in New York, he would earn better there. The K-12 program having kicked off, most parents now see added commercialism beneficial to private schools and textbook publishers, among other beneficiaries. Look at some of the modules K-12 has enforced: Handicraft Production, Bread and Pastry Production, Caregiving and Electrical Installation and Maintenance. These are the same modules that the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) separately teaches to short-course vocational trainees, depending on the field sought. In fact, the main reason why TESDA exists is to accommodate students who can’t afford long professional courses. Before World War II, according to our grandpas and grandmas, elementary-school graduates were allowed to teach primary pupils. Until the early 1950s, a two-year course in Elementary Teachers’ Certificate (ETC) was all it took to qualify for a teaching job. My late mother Alicia finished that course at the Iloilo Normal School (what is now West Visayas State University) and taught at the elementary school until her retirement age. The job market does not look for graduates who have spent more years in high school but for those who have earned skills in a profession or vocation. Filipino nurses and seamen, for instance, are in demand abroad because they work better than other nationals. It’s really not too late yet to repeal K-12, since the third-year high school students this year will finish fourth year in 2016 yet. / PN
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 06:00:19 +0000