K12: Quality over Quantity

“K12. K12. K12. For a student like me, I disagree with that education plan. Just imagine that I live in this world studying and studying and studying? I’m already a 3rd year student in secondary school and I’m about to graduate next year and expecting to study college. I survived studying in how many years, yet I have to study again for another two years?” (Marie)
Complains of a high school student named Marie. We often hear a student complain about having so much workload for school and how they spend so much time studying before they can graduate. Before a Filipino student can get to college, he must earn his diploma by finishing ten years of basic education. Who wouldn’t get tired of going to school five times a week from seven to four pm to study? Everyone went through the point in their lives of being drained of school work. What if the K12 program is implemented? Would students whine even more? Before anything else, what is the k12 program? It means kindergarten and the twelve years of elementary and secondary education required for a Filipino student. The Department of Education (DepEd) is proposing the K 6-4-2 model which, involves six years of elementary education, 4 years of junior high school, which are grades seven to ten, and two more years of senior year called grade eleven to twelve. The new proposed curriculum has two additional years compared to the current ten year education of the Philippines and will be implemented on the school year 2012-2013 if approved by the Aquino administration.
The goal of the K12 program is to change the perception that high school education is just a preparation for college and to create a program that will produce graduates ready to be employed. The new curriculum is focused on using research-based practices with specializations in science and technology, music and arts, agriculture and fisheries, sports, business and entrepreneurship. By adding two more years, the Philippines will achieve high academic standards especially in math, science and English. Not only that, the students will be able to master basic competencies and be socially aware in this fast changing world. Graduates will then be globally competitive and recognized abroad.
Most of the government officials support the K12 program. Education Secretary Armin Luistro says in an interview “The current thinking and current culture in the Philippines is that if you don’t finish with a college degree, there is something missing in your life. What should basic education be? To me, what is basic is that high school graduates should be able to live a meaningful life, they should be able to be prepared to start a family, and thirdly they should be able to be productively employed”. (Luistro) The DepEd believes that the enhanced program will help in producing better high school graduates thus, the benefits of the program will outweigh its costs. First of all, adding more years of education will decongest the workload of students giving them more time to master their lessons and they can learn more through experiences outside the classroom. Having higher standards in our education will result to graduates earning high wages in different companies here in the Philippines even without a college diploma. Moreover, through the mastery of basic core subjects, students who will continue on to college will be more prepared and those who wish to study abroad will meet the requirements of the entrance tests and will be recognized as professionals.
The program can also improve our country’s economy and social status. The country’s economy will have an accelerated growth because studies in the Philippines show that adding another year in education increases earnings by 7.5% and that improving the quality of education will increase the GDP to 2%. Aside from that, the Philippines will not be the only country in Asia with a ten year basic education program; we will be at par with international standards.
The new program seems promising for our country especially when the main goal is to improve the country’s education, which will give graduates a brighter future. But in every change, there are risks and negative affects also. What the people of the Philippines have to say also matter. Some citizens are against the K12 program because of the disadvantages and unknown possibilities it may cause. Mdelacena, a mother of three writes in her blog that “Public school education in the Philippines is not FREE, contrary to what we know. Parents will need to shell out more money for tuition, transportation, school projects, daily allowance, uniform and so on. As it is true that this could be a sound investment for some but for those who can barely send their child to school everyday, this is an added burden.” She is saying that parents will have a hard time providing money for an additional two more years. The education may be free but students will still need funds for transportation, food, supplies and other school expenses. Aside from just providing the basic needs of the family, parents will have to worry about budgeting their salary just to send their children to school.
Benjo Basas, chairman of the teacher’s dignity coalition comments that "The biggest challenge is the 2.5% increase in public school enrollees. Talagang hindi kayang i-accommodate. We have a big population, a growing population and we can't meet the need. The Department of Education is determined to implement K12 starting with universal kindergarten but on the issue of preparedness, it's not DepEd but the whole system that is not ready. There should be a priority in the budget, if we need 30,000 teachers, we should open 30,000 teaching items." (Dizon) The program really costs a lot of money that the government cannot afford even if the Aquino Administration says they will increase the DepEd budget by 32 billion pesos in 2011. Approximately P150 billion is needed for the funding of this project and where will our government get that? The government cannot even solve the lack of classrooms, facilities, qualified teachers and textbooks which, leads to poor education especially in the public schools. Senator Roxas reports that more than 75% percent of grade six students have not achieved reading comprehension while fourth year high school students have only reached 2% mastery for science, 7% mastery for English and 16% mastery for math.
The new program can also be a problem to universities and colleges because while students are stuck in grades 11 and 12, they will not have freshmen enrollees for two years which, can result to a financial disaster. Besides that, a high school diploma is not enough for a graduate to look for a decent paying job since business firms will prefer college graduates than fresh high school graduates.
The difficulty in this big change is that it may not be successful in the long run. A problem like this is most likely to happen especially in our country because there have been many laws in the past that are not properly implemented. One example is the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 whose purpose is to lessen the growing amounts of waste in our country but it has very slow progress. Mainly because the government does not contribute to the funds of local government units therefore, there is only a small budget for the collection of garbage, transportation and disposal. Another example related to the country’s education system is the implementation of bilingualism or using English and Filipino Languages in teaching which, is stated in the 1987 constitution of the Philippines Article XIV sec. 6 and 7. The policy was made for students to be competent and literate both in Filipino and English. Thirty years have passed since the policy has been used in our education system but it has slow development especially in public schools. The government cannot facilitate the policy properly since teachers are using Tagalog or their own native dialects in teaching because both the teachers and students find it easier to communicate.
Changing the curriculum of the Philippines is a big transformation and it will have a big effect on the whole country especially on the economic side. Our government must first consider the possible results and see to it that they can correctly execute the K12 program. If the government really wants to improve our education, focusing more on the improvement of the quality of education rather than the length of the education would be better. There are other crisis going on in our country that should be attended to and a very good example is the poor education in our country. Thus, the K12 program should not be implemented in the Philippines because the government does not have the funds to support it and our country may not be ready for that change.

Sources:
Marie. "Approved K-12 Education in the Philippines." My Mind's Outburst. 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.

" Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines” | Edited at the Office of the President of the Philippines Under Commonwealth Act No. 638. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.

Dizon, David. "'PH Education System Not Ready for K+12' | ABS-CBN News."ABS-CBN News. 6 June 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.

Padre, Joe. "DepEd to Phase in 12 Years of Basic Education | Multilingual Phlippines." Multilingual Philippines. 13 Aug. 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.

Delacena. "Approved K-12 Education in the Philippines." My Mind's Outburst. 10 Apr. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.

"Bilingual Education." SlideShare. 10 July 2009. Web. 05 Mar. 2012.

Cabuang, Fred S. "OPINION SBN 2294 Will save Philippine Languages." The Manila Times Internet Edition. 22 June 2008. Web. 05 Mar. 2012.