There's been a lot of confusion, anger and frustration with the Philippines change to the new K to 12 education program that is going to be implemented this year.
Currently, the Philippine educational system is based on 10 years of basic education. Six years of elementary and four years of high school. With nursery and kindergarten being optional.
According to the
Official Gazette
The K to 12 program is Kindergarten and 12 years of elementary and secondary (high school).
The model that is currently being proposed by DepEd is the K-6-4-2 Model. This 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 time for students to consolidate acquired academic skills and competencies.
What is Senior High School?
- 2 years of in-depth specialization for students depending on the occupation/career track they wish to pursue
- Skills and competencies relevant to the job market
- The 2 years of senior HS intend to provide time for students to consolidate acquired academic skills and competencies.
- The curriculum will allow specializations in Science and Technology, Music and Arts, Agriculture and Fisheries, Sports, Business and Entrepreneurship.
A full 12 years of basic education will eventually be required for entry into tertiary level education (entering freshmen by SY 2018-2019 or seven years from now).
Parents are angry with the added cost of 2 more years of education. Students are angry because they have to stay in school longer. I can understand completely how they feel. I would feel the same way too.
Here's a copy of a letter sent out by St. Jude to parents on how they plan to transition to the new system.
I have friends who said that instead of doing the stupid K to 12 program, the government should improve the quality of education instead of implementing this hare-brained idea. They go on to say that they would be willing to bet that their children who are in the current 10 year program are smarter than those students who go to 12 years of education in the US.
However, they seem to forget that their children are going in private schools where they are paying well over P50,000 a year and comparing them to students in the US who are going in public schools. Not a fair comparison. Of course their children will be smarter. You get what you pay for. If they compare their children with those going in private schools in Singapore or Japan, then it's a different story.
While it's frustrating for students and parents to add two more years, I believe this is the future of education if we want our children to be more successful. Part of the reason is this, when you have children graduating high school at age 16 or 17, most of them have no idea what careers they want to go into. I know I didn't at that age. Add to the fact that when I entered college, we had 2 years of minor subjects like English and Filipino which I thought was a complete waste of time. Instead of learning what we should be learning for our chosen field, we wasted a lot time and money for something I thought was completely useless.
It also didn't help that by the end of my 2nd year of college, I decided I really wanted to study something else entirely.
The new 2 years of senior high school program which will help students choose a specialization will give them enough time to decide what careers they really want. Of course, not all students are created equal, some will know early in life what they want to become but some won't. Those who know early will see the additional two years as a nuisance while those who can't afford college or don't know will have time to save money and decide what they want to do.
The nature of education is changing. We are in a global society and Filipinos are migrating a lot. Since our school system is not the same as the international standard, parents and children sometimes encounter problems in how to integrate their children in their new school.
It's not a problem if you have a child in elementary. For example, if you have a child who is 9 or 10 years old and is in Grade 4 in the Philippines, when they move to the US or Canada, they go to either Grade 4 or 5. Public education in these countries are based on the child's age.
However, if you have a child who is in the 4th year of high school in the Philippines who is 16 years old who expects to go to college next year. When they migrate to the US or Canada, they have to take Grade 10 to 12 plus ESL (English as a Second Language) before they can get to college or University.
The reason is because they don't allow students who is not turning 18 that year into college (unless your child is a genius or has taken all the pre-requisites for their course).
I know that even if the Philippine government added 2 more years of education that nothing will change unless they improve the quality of education, but more education is actually better as it will give children and teachers more time to master certain subjects. I also believe that continuous education and upgrade is essential in today's environment.
People will not always agree with this view especially those whose family is rich and own businesses. What does additional education add to their children when their children are going to be the boss anyway? However, not everyone is going to be a business owner.
I cringe every time I see a Filipino college graduate coming from an unknown provincial college who can't even write or spell properly when they are applying for a job. Their resumes alone makes me wonder how they were able to graduate. But that's a question of the quality of education and not the additional years of school. I'm just saying.
During my parents time, if you have a high school diploma, that's usually good enough to get you a job. In my time, if you graduate with a college degree you are employable. If you only have a high school degree, don't even bother looking for a good job because the only job you'll get is a janitorial job (nothing against being a janitor). Today, a Master's degree or an MBA is almost equivalent to a college degree. You'll have a hard time getting a high paying job in a multinational company unless you have that.
It's a different world, our children needs the tools to compete. Our education system has to change and improve with the times, we need to start building children that is prepared for the future. A future whose foundation is built upon math, science, agriculture and business. We have to stop educating children just to say they graduated from college with no useful skills. We need children who are also learning life skills and technical skills to help improve their lives for their future and their family's future.
What are your thoughts? I would love to hear from you in the comments section.
Comments
We're not in the business of education, why not leave it to them? the door is always open, why waste time going against the flow? problems of the few with the rich (own business) mentality....they dont need the extra 2 years coz their children doesnt need to compete with global work force. Paano naman ang nakakarami? why compare k-12 with the US...we're in Asia, we should compare our curriculum to our neighbor countries such as Japan, korea, singapore et al. whats wrong in learning more skills? it'll help our kids to cope with life's complexities. in all asian countries, we top in pampering.
sjcs should be more valiant in their advance learning module. make sure they employ (or re-train)Competent educators who will guide ( hollistic approach ) their students with curriculum change. there is no room for old school politics. we have to secure our childen to become globally competent.
bridging program is a tool for updating and enhancing the student's competency level as it also reflects the School
System. Competence should start from within for everyone to emulate.
Cheers!
Everyone, rich and poor has the right to education! Even the rich has to be assured that they get proper and quality education since more often than not they need to learn how to grow their businesses further.
Mind you, extending the schooling years by two years does not equate to more learnings and higher or greater competencies. Quality is what parents and administrators should be after not Quantity of School Years. The summer bridging program of St. Jude (an optional program) is so short-sighted that instead of supporting the K to 12, it will even compound the inequities and incompetencies of school children who took the bridging program and skipped a level and those that did not in the same class. How can faculty members deal with this situation effectively? This multiciplicity of skills required of teachers handling varying competency levels will be another major concern. It is my fervent hope that St. Jude Catholic School had rationalized its curriculum program for the summer bridge and the whole of the K to 12 implementation. God bless us all . . . . . .