Digest of the Journal Research/Article

Educational system in the Philippines has been way behind the neighboring
countries. The ASEAN integration and globalization as well as United Nations pressured
the Philippine government to upgrade its educational system from the usual 10 years
curriculum to the new curriculum or the K-12 Program. K to 12 means one year of
kindergarten and 12 years of elementary and secondary education. Without proper
preparation this was implemented in the Philippines with the new curriculum of a
promised to mastery among the students, students will not have to rush through the
lessons anymore. It will also do away with unnecessary topics in the curriculum so that
students will develop competencies and acquire life skills that will make them
productive members of the society. The questions are will this really help the students
cope up and be at par on their counterparts? Will this really be the solution the
government is looking for to cater for the needs of its young people? And lastly will it be
an effective way for the students to learn more efficiently and gain the quality of
education the government is looking for?

Critique

The introduction of the research journal was brief but concise. It was able to
show how the Philippine education has started briefly. The journal article though failed
to mention about what the author made a point to tell his readers how popular the
topic about K-12 program is, and how the Filipino people are interested about the
upcoming implementation by that time. The author cited some education reforms that
happened in the educational system of the Philippines and focused on the EDCOM or
the Congressional Commission on Education headed by then Senator Edgardo Angara.
And according to then Senator Angara, “Teachers are at the heart of our educational
system. They must undergo continuous training if we want our students to be on par with
those from our ASEAN neighbors”. The author discussed about the importance of the
said commission but not all of the good part of it was emphasized or mentioned. Only
one of the many laws was mentioned when in fact the said commission led to the
passage of many laws for the improvement and development of the country’s
educational system. These laws as summarized by Ms Sara Soliven De Guzman of
Philippine Star are the following : RA No. 7722, “An Act Creating the CHED, et.”, May 18,
1994; RA No. 7796, “An Act Creating the TESDA, et.”, August 25, 1994; RA No. 7784, “An
Act to Strengthen Teacher Education in the Philippines by Establishing Centers of
Excellence Creating a Teacher Education Council, et.”, August 4, 1994; RA No. 7836,
“An Act to Strengthen the Regulation and Supervision of the Practice of the Teaching
Profession and Prescribing a Licensure Examination for Teachers and for other Purpose”,
December 15, 1994; and RA No. 7797, “An Act to Lengthen the School Calendar from
200 days to not more than 220 class days”, 1994. It was also good that the journal point
out the story behind the formulation of BESRA as cited by Poblador(2012) that reform
proposals in Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda were externally generated. This
means that the reform package was formulated by policy makers or consultants, who
are not organic of the DepEd. In other words, it has created a problem, because
DepEd officials and bureaucrats are reluctant to accept proposals or reforms that
come from outside sources (cf Bautista, 2009; and Poblador, 2012). That alone can
make the reader understand more about the reforms and development of the
educational system of the country that lead to the signing of former President Aquino
on the K-12 program into a law which was called Republic Act 10533 or the Basic
Education Act of 2013. It was as well important that the reasons behind the failure of
reform packages in the past were discussed in this journal.

Reasons why reform packages in the past that were implemented by the Education
Department failed:

1. Absence of a shared commitment to a common goal;

2. Conflicting individual interests;

3. Perceptions of inequity in the sharing of effort, costs, and benefits;

4. Exaggerated self-assessment of competence, or the lack of it; and

5. Differences in status and authority, which hinder meaningful debates and the
free flow of information (Poblador, 2012).

These reasons though were not thoroughly discussed was good enough for the
readers to think about what went through the failure and shortcoming of the
educational system in the country.

The K-12 Program was discussed and the advantages were pointed out one by one
according to DepEd pint of view in this journal. From the point of view of the
government, K-12 is the appropriate response to address the century old problem in
education as well as being globally competitive (Cabansag, 2014). The author made
sure to mention the government’s perspective on the topic as he slowly unravels the K-
12 program. At that point readers can feel the sincerity of the government on its aim to
improve the country’s educational system and to be able to produced talented,
educated individual that can be able to fare well in the international arena, may it be
in economic aspect, technologically and or any kind of job Filipinos will venture.
 K-12 as response to ASEAN integration and globalization, the Philippines is now the
only country in Asia that has a 10-year basic education cycle and one of the three
remaining countries in the world, together with Djibouti and Angola of Africa that
retains a 10-year pre-university education system (Senate of the Philippines, 2011). In this
journal the reason in endorsing the program into a law by the Senate were pointed out.
Both the positive and negative aspects were brought up in this article. With the advent
of globalization, almost all our cultural life as a nation is affected, directly or indirectly.
Globalization is the flow of technology, economy, knowledge, people, values, and
ideas across the borders. Globalization affects each country in a different way, due to
a nation’s individual history, traditions, culture, and priorities (cf Lenn, 1996; Azad, 2011;
Tsuruta, 2013). What was discussed above is true, this also backing up the government
on its decision to follow the trend of the neighboring countries and around the world.

As was mentioned above are the positive aspect of globalization lest we not forget
that there are also negative effect among us. And that was also explained well in this
journal. But, we should be reminded of the backlash or the negative impact of
globalization to our life. Globalization could transfer the production or manufacturing to
developing countries in order to spare the highly developed economies from
environmental destruction/damage. There is now a phenomenon of “homogenization
of culture” courtesy of globalization, because the multinational companies (e.g.
international food chain store), the internet, the global media are so powerful in
influencing and shaping the lives of the people especially the young people (cf Azad,
2011; and Oludimu, 2014). It is indeed good to be at par with the developing countries
but people should not also forget the big impact of industrialization and progress to the
country, people and the environment. It is very good that the author was able to cite
these kinds of negative effect. Yes it is true that we have to act and do something for us
our life to improve but then we should also consider the homogenization of culture
since every culture has different needs and lifestyle. The author remained unbiased in
his writing about that aspect. He was very objective in his aim to unravel the k-12
program by citing some positive and negative effect of the reason why the law was
passed.

The author discussed the critique of K-12, No other than one Senator has clearly
manifested his strong opposition to the K-12 Program of the national government.
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV argued that:

It is in the best interest of the country to suspend the K-12 Program, while we
continue to face the perennial problems of our education system, such as the lack of
classrooms and school materials, high student-teacher ratio, and low salary of teachers.
In addition to this is the government’s unpreparedness to the threatened retrenchment
of around 85,000 college professors and employees, when the program commences in
2016. [...] there are still a lot of schools, which continue to use make-shift classrooms, or
take shifts in using classrooms just to accommodate their students. This situation would
even worsen once two batches of students would be absorbed in addition to the four
levels of high school that we have now. In terms of school materials, students continue
to share with each other with the ratio of as high as four students per module. This
number will definitely increase as the K to 12 Program commences in 2016.

The author used a very controversial personality to point out those people that were
so critical of the said program. But aside from that popular senator who from the very
beginning was a government critic there are some organizations that also voiced out
their concerned regarding the implementation of program. The author cited the
following organizations or party list:

1. TDC (Teachers’ Dignity Coalition) (Malipot, 2014).

2. Ating Guro Partylist (Marcelo, 2015).

3. ACT (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) ( Gamil, 2015).

The author was successful in letting his reader understand the side of those that are
not in favor of the program by providing substantial citation, interviews and statements
from those organizations and the senator himself as many has watch him on television
airing his sentiment on the readiness of the Filipino people on the implementation of the
K-12 Program.

The textbooks of the Philippine K-12 Program reflect even the literature of
European/Western countries and undervalue the local and national literature. This
could be true in some aspect but not all the are based on the foreign countries as a
reader and as I was able to navigate books of the K-12 Program from public and some
in private, some that I encountered was already based on the local culture or using
examples and topics based on our own country and ethnicity. This seems to negate the
other presentation made by the author that the K-12 according to DepEd (Department
of Education), K-12 Program has the following features: (1) making curriculum will be
relevant to the learners, or contextualization and enhancement; (2) building proficiency
through language, or mother tongue based multilingual education.

The K-12 Program is actually the instrument of the global elite to promote the
universal system of education to go well with their capitalist and exploitative agenda.
This statement wants to inform the readers how big is the effect of the implementation
of the program may cause if we are not vigilant. In that statement I can conclude that
the author has a negative vibes on the implementation of the said program.
 I think to attain a quality of education in the public school system and the entire
education system in the Philippines, we need to listen to the voices of all the education
sectors, the issues and concerns raised by the marginalized groups, e.g. public school
teachers, various teachers’ organizations, among others. This goes to the reasons why
the government failed before as the author has mentioned in the journal “This means
that the reform package was formulated by policy makers or consultants, who are not
organic of the DepEd. In other words, it has created a problem, because DepEd
officials and bureaucrats are reluctant to accept proposals or reforms that come from
outside sources (cf Bautista, 2009; and Poblador, 2012).” Yes the author’s statement is
true, those that are on hands in the education like teachers are the first ones to know
and understand the trends and needs of the students to be catered.

Our professionals and even the technical manpower are well-sought workers
abroad, due to our technical, professional skills as well as our work ethics. Even with the
10 year educational system of the country this is already true, now that the K-12
program was implemented our young professionals are now expected to be much
more than what was produced by the educational system before. In all aspect of the
education today it is indeed true that we are more advance nowadays.

The teachers are very critical in the delivery of quality education. The training of
teachers is a starting point. That’s why the TEIs (Teacher Training Institutions) should be
well equipped in all their facilities, curriculum, professors, and libraries, among others in
educating the future teachers of the country. The author emphasized these aspects
that needed to be improved for the K-12 to be successful in the long run. Thus trainings
and seminars are now part of the teacher’s life as they need to continuously improve
themselves to be able to cater the needs of their students. Facilities are now slowly
upgrading, libraries though may take sometimes to be available to all schools but then
the author didn’t failed to mention the other things that needed to be consider to gain
an advantage as the government implement the said program.

Conclusion

Education indeed is very important part of our life. Even before the
implementation of the K-12 Program Philippine government already took it seriously as
the article mentioned above. It took a lot of reforms and laws for the system to be
develop into what it is today. With the support of the community, government,
Education Stakeholders, business sectors, NGO’s, parents and all of us we should all
work hand in hands to provide quality education to the young people produce young
talented professional for our society. We should be open to new development, ideas
and suggestion from our own people.
Recommendations

I recommended just a few things to the author and they are as follows:

1. The author could have used another personality or organization that has not had
any biased opinion regarding the said program on the critique part of the journal
and give unbiased criticism.

2. The author could have discussed more on the K-12 curriculum and how it differ
from the old curriculum that we are used to know.

References:

Abulencia, Arthur S. (2015). “The Unraveling of K-12 Program as an Education Reform in

the Philippines” in SIPATAHOENAN: South-East Asian Journal for Youth, Sports &
Health Education, Vol.1(2) October, pp.229240. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda
Masagi Press, APAKSI Bandung, and KEMENPORA RI Jakarta, ISSN 2407-7348.

Azad, J.L. (2011). “Globalization and its Impact on Education: A Challenge and an
Opportunity”, on February 8. Available online at: http://www.
scribd.com/doc/48392155/Globalization-and-ItsImpact-on-Education#scribd

Bautista, M.A. et al. (2009). “When Reforms Don’t Transform: Reflections on Institutional
Reforms in the Department of Education” in HDN Discussion Paper Series, PHDR
Issue 2008/2009, No.2. Available online also at:
http://hdn.org.ph/wpcontent/uploads/2009/05/dp02_bautista_etal.pdf

Cabansag, Marie Grace S. (2014). “Impact Statements on the K-12 Science Program in
the Enhanced Basic Education Curriculum in Provincial Schools” in Researchers
World: Journal of Arts, Science & Commerce, Vol.5, No.2 [April]. Available online
also at: http://www.researchersworld.com/

De Guzman, S. S. (2018, June). The power of a dream. AS A MATTER OF FACT. Retrieved

from https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2018/06/04/1821389/power-dream.

Gamil, Jaymee T. (2015). “ACT Joins Call for K to 12 Program Suspension” in Philippine
Daily Inquirer, on May 21. Available online also at: http://
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Lenn, M. Peace. (1996). “The Globalization of the Professions and Higher Education:
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Malipot, Ina Hernando. (2014). “K to 12 gets ‘B’ Grade From Teachers”, on July 9.
Available online at: http://www.mb.com.ph/k-to-12-gets-b-grade-
fromteachers/#1qlUsAIHv6z9H0pd.99

Marcelo, Elizabeth. (2015). “Who’ll be Next Year’s College Freshmen when K-12’s Senior
High School Starts?” Available online at: http://www.
gmanetwork.com/news/story

Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. (2019). The K to 12 Basic Education
Program GOVPH. [online] Available at: https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/k-12.

Oludimu, Olufemi. (2014). “Globalization, Human Security, and Some Intervening

Concerns” in European Scientific Journal, Special edition [August]. Available
online also at: file:///C:/Users/ acer/Downloads/4032-11722-1-PB.pdf

Poblador, Niceto. (2012). “On BESRA: A Voice Years Ago” on May 2. Available online at:
http://www. philippinesbasiceducation.us/2012/05/on-besravoice-years-
ago.html#ixzz3bJft35NU [accessed in Manila, Philippines: April 4, 2015].

Senate of the Philippines. (2011, March 31). Committee Report No. 24. Re: House Bill no. 3826 taking
into consideration Senate Bill No. 2700.

“Trillanes: Suspend Implementation of K to 12” in Press Release, on July 22, 2014. Available online also
at: http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_ release/2014/0722_trillanes1.asp

Tsuruta, Yoko. (2013). “The Globalisation, Regionalisation, and Internationalisation of

Higher Education with Special Reference to Japan: A Theoretical Consideration”
in Education-Line. Available online also at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk
 A Critique Paper

“The Unraveling of K-12 Program as an Education Reform in

the Philippines”

By

Educational Psychology (112)

MTH 11:30-1:30

Isidro Dulay Alindayu Jr. MAG

Instructor

October 10, 2019