Bullecer, Yrrahbell C.

With Regards to K-12 Curriculum in the Philippines

An astonishing number of petitions have been presented to the Supreme Court

about a matter that, in the minds of many, should have been settled years ago. I’m not
referring to the Bangsamoro Basic Law here or some other equally momentous piece of
legislation. I’m referring to the implementation of the K-12 law mandated by the 2013
Enhanced Basic Education Act (RA 10533).

And what is the issue being brought before the nation’s highest court? The
question: should our country have the same number of years (12) of basic education as
virtually the rest of the entire world—except for Djibouti and Angola? For people who
love to roll their eyes and exclaim, “Only in the Philippines!” this puts basic education
right in there with divorce. And it would be bad enough if the situation were merely an
embarrassment. [1]

Multi-tracking, while cost effective in the short term, actually ends up costing
more due to higher utility costs, less or no down time for building maintenance, and the
loss of opportunity to build before the cost of labor and materials rise after population
increases force the building of new facilities. Multi-tracking does not alleviate the need
for new school construction, it merely puts off the decision to build until it is even more
cost prohibitive, thus locking communities into overcrowded schools and multi-tracking
year-round calendars. [2]

“We can do in ten years what everyone else in the world takes 12 years to do.
Why do we have to follow what the rest of the world is doing? We are better than all of
them. Filipinos right now are accepted in prestigious graduate schools in the world,
even with only ten years of basic education.” [3] Isagani Cruz (Philippine Star)

The cons are that the parents have to spend 2 extra years for school, and if their
children decide to enter college, there's an additional 2-year spending that was never
supposed to be there. As for those affected who are NOT the students, the college
professors will have to cope with the first generation of K+12 students. There would be
no college freshmen FOR 2 YEARS. [4]

With the K to 12 system already implemented in the Philippines since 2011,

parents may worry more because their children will have to extend their stay in school
for two more years.

For years, the Philippines has been lagging behind other developing countries in
the ASEAN region. The country was one of the remaining countries in the whole world
that still adopts the K-10 system, until today. Since 2011, the government has
implemented the K-12 educational system in the Philippines to catch up with the rest of
the world. [5]

The school year has begun, and with no books, teachers were told to instead
download materials from the Internet. But CNN Philippines checked the DepEd portal
for digital versions of textbooks. But most of the available materials are just lesson
guides.

For Rep. Roman Romulo, chairman of the House Committee on Higher

Education, the K-to-12 program is a concern, "I think they should just be honest with
themselves and us," he says. At the end of the day, he said, those who will bear the
burden are public school students. Given these problems, many can't help but ask: Is
DepEd really ready for the K-to-12 program? [6]

As head of the coalition, Professor Rene Tadle of the University of Santo Tomas
told CNN Philippines that the group agrees with the objectives of the program.
Nevertheless, he said that the law should be suspended because the government is not
yet prepared to implement it, especially with regard to labor.

"It [the law] only mentioned the word labor once...The law is incomplete in far as to
address [the issue of] labor displacement." [7]

When Mr. Elvin Ivan Y. Uy, DepEd’s K-12 Program Coordinator, presented the
status of the Senior High School curriculum, problems began to emerge. He echoed
Bro. Armin’s summary of the reform as “Learner-centered” education. But from the
Power Point Presentation entitled: “The K-12 Curriculum: CEAP-NBEC Summit” he
spoke of “31 total Subjects” required for Senior High School, 15 of which were “Core
Subjects” and 16 of which were “Track Subjects,” the latter broken down into 7
“Contextualized” subjects and 9 “Specialization” subjects. From the same slide came
the “non-negotiable” announcement: “Each subject will have 80 hours per semester.”
[8]

The new program of compulsory education in the Philippines rolled out in 2012. It
places a high value on kindergarten, where it is currently focusing most of its efforts.
Every child who is old enough to attend kindergarten is now required to go to school. As
this cohort moves through the curriculum, efforts on succeeding grades will increase in
intensity. [9]

With the remaining little number of students who are in private schools without
any form of government subsidy, Luistro suggested that it would require minimum
financing to cover all students completely.

“If the next administration chooses to do universal subsidy for all Filipino students, the
math of the budget required for that will be very insignificant,” Luistro said. [10]
Resources:
1.http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2015/06/15/1466151/challenges-basic-education-
dealing-k-12 by Lila Ramos Shahani (philstar.com)

2.http://www.k12academics.com/education-policy/year-round-
school/disadvantages#.V4ZZI0t97IV

3.https://mlephil.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/pros-cons-of-the-k12-debate/ by Isagani
Cruz (Philippine Star)

4. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-the-implementation-of-K-12-
schools-in-the-Philippines

5. http://mysite.dlsu.edu.ph/student/11121114/martina.html by Martina Mendoza

6. http://cnnphilippines.com/incoming/2015/06/25/Problems-hounding-K-to-12-program-
Part-2-Errors-in-textbooks.html by Miguel Ortilla (CNN Philippines)

7. http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2015/04/17/k-12-unresolved-issues.html by Paolo
Taruc (CNN Philippines)

8.https://taborasj.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/serious-problems-with-the-k-12-senior-
high-school-curriculum/

9. http://k12educationsystem.com/k-12-reviews-educational-system-philippines/

10. https://www.deped.gov.ph/press-releases/private-schools-take-challenge-vow-
embrace-k-12