Research Writing

Naninindigan pa rin po tayo sa ipinangako nating pagbabago sa edukasyon: ang gawin itong sentral na estratehiya sa pamumuhunan sa pinakamahalaga nating yaman: ang mamamayang Pilipino. Sa K to 12, tiwala tayong mabibigyang-lakas si Juan dela Cruz upang mapaunlad—hindi lamang ang kanyang sarili at pamilya—kundi maging ang buong bansa. – Pangulong Benigno S. Aquino III

The K to 12 Program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education (six years of primary education, four years of Junior High School, and two years of Senior High School [SHS]) to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills, develop lifelong learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship.

Senior High School is two years of specialized upper secondary education; students may choose a career track based on aptitude, interests, and school capacity. The choice of career track will define the content of the subjects a student will take in Grades 11 and 12. These subjects fall under either the Core Curriculum or specific Career Pathways.

1 Core Curriculum

There are six subjects under the Core Curriculum. These are Humanities, Languages (English and/or Filipino), Math, Philosophy, Science, and Social Sciences. Current content from some General Education subjects are embedded in the SHS curriculum.

2 Career Pathways

Each student in Senior High School can choose among five tracks: Business and Entrepreneurship; Humanities and Social Sciences; Science, Technology, and Engineering; Sports; and Technical-Vocational.

Students undergo On-the-Job Training (OJT) or immersion, which may include earn-while-you-learn opportunities, to provide them relevant exposure and actual experience in their chosen track.

TVET (Technical Vocational Education & Training) National Certificate
After finishing Grade 10, a student can obtain Certificates of Competency (COC) or a National Certificate Level I (NC I). After finishing a Technical-Vocational track in Grade 12, a student may obtain a National Certificate Level II (NC II), provided he/she passes the competency-based assessment of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). NC I and NC II improves employability of graduates in fields like Agriculture, Electronics, and Trade.

Modeling Best Practices for Senior High School
In SY 2012-2013, there are 30 public high schools and higher education institutions (HEIs) that have implemented Grade 11. This is a Research and Design (R&D) program to simulate different aspects of Senior High School in preparation for full nationwide implementation in SY 2016-2017. Modeling programs offered by these schools are based on students’ interests, community needs, and their respective capacities.

3 Nurturing the Holistically Developed Filipino (College and Livelihood Readiness, 21st Century Skills)

After going through Kindergarten, the enhanced Elementary and Junior High curriculum, and a specialized Senior High program, every K to 12 graduate will be ready to go into different paths – may it be further education, employment, or entrepreneurship.

Every graduate will be equipped with:

1. Information, media and technology skills, 2. Learning and innovation skills, 3. Effective communication skills, and 4. Life and career skills.

Back to top

2 DepEd kicks off K-to-12 program

ALARMED by the high dropout rate in schools, the Department of Education (DepEd) early this year launched its K-to-12 program, which the agency believes could be the answer to the lingering problem of the country’s perennially high unemployment rate. The program also seeks to raise the quality of education to global standards.

According to DepEd, only five out of 10 first graders finish high school and, only two out of five high school graduates enter college.

To address the problem, DepEd has added two more years to high school.

DepEd said that the K-to-12 program will enable students to land a job after graduation. Under the program, students will be taught new subjects and given vocational and technical training, and on-the-job-training.

The K-to-12 Basic Education Program rolled out when Universal Kindergarten was implemented in all public schools in 2011, followed by the enhanced Grades 1 and 7 curriculum beginning school year 2012-2013.

Approval
Education Secretary Brother Armin Luistro expressed his appreciation over the high approval rating, which showed that majority of Filipinos believe that K-to-12 will better prepare students for work and college education.

“It is important to us that many people are now beginning to appreciate the merits of K-to-12, a reform program that will open more opportunities to our young people,” Luistro said.

Results of a Social Weather Stations survey, which was conducted in March, showed that more than half of Filipinos believe that the K-to-12 basic education reform program will give students more sufficient knowledge and preparation (65 percent), and encourage them to finish senior high school because graduates are better prepared for work.

Moreover, 59 percent of the respondents believe that more will be encouraged to finish the K-to-12 senior high school program because it is equivalent to two years of college at a high school rate.

Lesson plans
In order to have more time to prepare learning supplements and devote more time to student-centered activities, both public elementary and secondary school teachers have adopted flexibility in the preparation of their daily lesson plans.

Luistro said that Teachers’ Guides (TGs) have been prepared for teachers of Grades 1 and 7 under the K-to-12 curriculum. TGs will also be prepared for succeeding grades each year. Parallel to this, Teachers’ Manuals, textbooks and supplementary materials are made available to teachers in different year levels.

Criticism
Meanwhile, the DepEd’s two more years in high school draw flak from the teachers group Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT).

“Kung itutulak ito nang walang kahandaan, sa halip na maisayos, lalong lilikha ng mga problema,” said Rep. Antonio Tinio of ACT Teachers Party-List.

Currently, there is a lack of 99,628 teachers and 66,800 classrooms across the country. This is why many public schools are overcrowded, with each room accommodating as many as a hundred students.

The group earlier warned the government that the problem could only deteriorate if the K-to-12 program is implemented prematurely.

Palace defends program
But the Malacañang defended the implementation of the K-to-12 program, saying that this will help students comply with international standards.

Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda said that the government only has good intentions in implementing the program.

Lacierda stressed that by undergoing the program, students can easily find employment after graduating from high school even without going to college.

“That’s going to be complying with international standards. It is for the good of the students. We have no other intention but to mean well and to make sure that our students graduate with compliance to international standards and should they decide not to pursue college studies, they will be able to find employment opportunities after high school,” he said.

The Malacañang official asked the affected students, parents and stakeholders for understanding, saying that they would be able to eventually adjust to the system. But Lacierda also said that they cannot yet implement the proposed Spanish language as part of the K-to-12 program due to lack of teachers.

He said that while the DepEd has reintroduced the Spanish language as an elective in the public high school curriculum, the subject could only apply it in selected schools.

According to him, there are 64 public high schools that offer Spanish as an elective for third and fourth year students.

Queen Sofia of Spain lauded the DepEd’s efforts to reintroduce the language in the public education system. Local employment
Also designed to adapt local employment and industry needs, Luistro on June 8 led key officials during the launch of the Coffee Academy at Pinagtongulan National High School in Lipa City. The famous kapeng barako of Batangas province, which suffered from coffee rust that caused its decline many decades ago, is expected to be served hot once again when coffee growing technology is taught to senior high school students under the program.

This special program was designed for senior high school starting school year 2012-2013 (Grade 11) and 2013-2014 (Grade 12). Some of the subjects to be taught under the special curriculum include basic research method, project feasibility study, coffee nursery management and practices, as well as entrepreneurial development.

“Using education as one of tools to revive the industry, we want our youth to take part in bringing back the glory days of coffee in Batangas,” Luistro said.

Sports program
As part of the K-to-12 curricula, the DepEd also conducted a training workshop for teachers to guide sports-oriented students in choosing sports as the entry point to the world of work or to higher education.

The training-workshop was divided into two concepts, options in the world of work and options in higher education, which also feature discussions on sports ethics, sports marketing, and sports psychology.

Under the Special Program on Sports, students can either choose to pursue a college degree related to sports or pursue jobs like community coaching, apprenticeship or physical fitness instructors.

“By orienting our students and teachers with the different fields related to the Special Program on Sports, they will be fully equipped with knowledge and processes that can be readily applied to their future careers,” Luistro said.

Special education
Just like regular learners, children with special needs should be subscribing to the regular curriculum in school, but teachers will have to introduce some modifications to suit their unique learning needs.

The DepEd chief, who himself handled children with special needs during his early teaching days, said that Special Education is always a part of regular education and as such, it follows the regular basic learning competencies.

“It just so happens that they have special needs, thus, we have to give them special attention. This entails a little adjustment and accommodation from our teachers,” Luistro said, referring to learners whose learning disabilities include speech defect, visual and hearing impairment or high functioning individuals who may have autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, those with problems with mobility and other physical and learning conditions.

Subsidy
The DepEd also has provided a financial assistance of one million pesos each to the 12 technical-vocational secondary schools that will model the Senior High School Program.

Luistro said that the grant would help the recipient schools in efficiently implementing the Senior High School Modeling Program that debuted when classes opened in June this year.

“We are assisting these schools so that they may effectively and expediently operate the program through technical and financial support. Just like a research and development process, we expect to draw out the best practices of participating model schools which we can replicate in the years ahead,” Luistro explained.

Assessment
The DepEd and the United States Agency for International Development has also conducted an assessment of on-going information communications technology for education (ICT4E) initiatives to better integrate ICT in the K-to-12 Curriculum.

“We have to set up our ICT thrust as we gradually implement the Basic Education Reform Program. As we all know, ICT plays a very important role in administrative functions as well as in the teaching and learning process,” Luistro said.

Among the initiatives the assessment will include is the DepEd Computerization Program (DCP), which deploys computer packages to public elementary and high schools nationwide to support the teaching and learning process. To date, the program has covered 51 percent of elementary schools and 88 percent of high schools as of the beginning of school year 2011to 2012.

“The improvement of the design and implementation of initiatives such as the DCP, which have direct bearing to the overall reforms propounded by K-to-12, is an important undertaking,” Luistro added.

DepEd, Tesda inked pact with Makati
The DepEd and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority have signed a memorandum of agreement to formalize the modeling of Senior High School (SHS) in the University of Makati (Umak).

The city government of Makati took the lead in modeling the proposed Senior High School program in the UMak.

[pic]
3 K+12 in Special Education

Special education in public schools is set to change to follow the new education reform, K+12...
By ANGELO G. GARCIA
July 1, 2012, 7:28pm

MANILA, Philippines — This school year, the Department of Education has started to implement the K+12 program which revamps the basic curriculum from 10 years to 12 years — six years in elementary (Grades 1 to 6), four years in junior high school (Grades 7 to 10), two years in senior high school (Grades 11 to 12).

The program started this year with Grade 1 and Grade 7 students in all public elementary and high schools nationwide. The program’s full implementation is expected to be in full swing in 2016.

However, in a statement released by the education department, children with special needs (CSNs) will also follow the K+12 program. This is part of the government's inclusive education program that all children, regardless of any physical or learning disability, shall subscribe to the regular curriculum of the school. Apart from covering students with physical and learning disabilities, the program also covers gifted children.

CURRICULUM MODIFICATION

Basically, students under SpEd follow the basic curriculum of general education but modified according to the CSN’s needs.

The curriculum also differs depending on the condition of the child — autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Down syndrome, deaf, visually impaired, etc.

“We modify the basic curriculum based on the learning disabilities. Each of the learning areas has its own curriculum,” says Mirla Olores, DepEd SpEd Division chief.

For example, for the visually impaired, the curriculum is modified to add courses on mobility and Braille. This also goes for children who are deaf who have to study sign language in addition to the basic curriculum.

With the new K+12 curriculum, further modifications for SpEd are thus needed. But Olores said that they have yet to modify the new

curriculum for the SpEd kindergarten and Grade 1.

“Pag-aaralan pa naming mabuti. Titignan namin kung ano ang bago sa curriculum ng K+12 na ilalagay namin doon sa curriculum ng mga CSNs and Headstart program (gifted class),” Olores explains.

CSNs who are mainstreamed or those who are taking regular class with regular students may already follow the new curriculum since they are already in regular class.

THE ADVANTAGES OF PRIVATE SPED SCHOOLS

Under Philippine law, private schools have the flexibility to either follow the DepEd curriculum or modify it. That is why many private schools, regular and SpEd, have long been implementing 12 years in basic education, thus there is hardly any change in their curriculum.

The Learning Center (TLC), a private SpEd school in Parañaque, is already familiar with the K + 12 program since they have been adopting some elements of the 12-year basic education of other countries in their program.

“Since we are already familiar with other K to 12 curriculum of other countries, there will be no major change in our curriculum. We also have our free rein on how we can modify our curriculum. It's not

really difficult to adjust,” shares TLC curriculum director Landa Bautista.

For instance, TLC's curriculum already has functional learning, where CSNs are taught life skills that can help them live independently or skills that will help them find work. This is similar to the new K +12 program of DepEd where senior high school students study vocational skills to ready them for work.

“The K +12 program is a continuum process for mastery of the learning competencies. In the regular curriculum or the old curriculum, they cram what the students need to learn in 10 years. So the K +12 is like decongesting the system so that there are more years for students to master learning skills,” Bautista says.

Bautista adds that private SpEd schools have no problems with the K to 12 program. They are just hoping that the new curriculum will benefit the students with special needs especially those in public schools since they have to adjust more than the private school.

INTERACTIVE AND HANDS-ON LEARNING

The basic goal of SpEd is to teach CSNs basic academic and life skills, especially to moderate to low functioning CSNs.

“For some students with special needs, teaching a particular skill can take weeks, months and even years, depending on their learning ability. So we base the curriculum on the competencies and ability of the child,” Olores says. “What is important for them is they can communicate. They can comprehend. We don’t expect them to master advanced Math or English. We can help them become productive, independent citizens.”

Bautista says that there is promise to the K + 12 program if they stick to their vision of holistically developing students’ potentials and skills. She just hopes that the new curriculum will focus on the functional literacy of a special child and has more hands-on and interactive learning.

Olores adds that the change is necessary because students with special needs are also part of the education system. Aside from the curriculum, she says there is also a need to enhance the teaching strategies of SpEd teachers.

“It's a must that the curriculum be modified for our special children. We give them what is due. Aayusin mo ang lahat, hindi lang ang curriculum, pati na rin ang strategies na rin sa pagtuturo. What is the best for our child should be on top of our mind,” Olores says.