Romulo: K-12 failed to deliver on jobs promise for SHS grads

June 6, 2025 , 10:58 PM

(June 6, 2025) — A lawmaker on Friday said the Philippine education system was not prepared to implement the K to 12 program and failed to fulfill one of its key promises: making senior high school (SHS) graduates job-ready.

In an interview on One News’ Morning Matters, House Committee on Basic Education and Culture Chair Rep. Roman Romulo backed proposals in both chambers of Congress to overhaul the K to 12 system, stressing that most graduates of the technical-vocational (Tech-Voc) track remain unemployable in quality jobs, undermining the program’s original goal.

“You added two years with a promise for a quality job and that never really happened,” Romulo said. “Even industries say they still prefer a college graduate or at least a second-year college graduate [to be employed].”

Implemented in school year 2012-2013, the K to 12 program introduced two additional years of senior high school aimed at preparing students for either employment, entrepreneurship, or higher education. But Romulo said only a small fraction of graduates actually secured jobs, which did not justify the added years of schooling.

“Many of our K to 12 Tech-Voc graduates are getting jobs — but these are jobs they could have gotten even without the additional two years. In fact, some of these jobs they could have gotten even without finishing fourth year high school,” he said.

Romulo pointed to a steep decline in students choosing the Tech-Voc track, from a high of 36% in 2013 to just 29% today. Only about 1% and 2% of students now opt for the sports and arts tracks, respectively — far below the original projections of 10% each.

He also questioned the Department of Education’s reliance on the Philippine Qualifications Framework’s National Certificate II (NC II) as proof of employability.

“An NC II means that the individual is skilled, but would still need guidance. So how can you say that is job-ready?” he asked.

Romulo’s critique comes amid deliberations on the proposed “Education Pathways Bill” passed by the House on third reading. The bill seeks to remove the current system of SHS tracks and strands and allow students to proceed to Grades 11 and 12 only if they intend to pursue college. It also gives an option to skip these entirely through an “honors exam.”

“For most Filipino families, they need quality education and quality jobs at the soonest possible time,” Romulo said. “They don’t have the luxury of [students from] well-off families that can study for life.”

Romulo attributed the systemic flaws of the K to 12 program to poor planning and lack of preparation during its rollout. He said that in 2015, when the program was fully implemented, many schools lacked teachers, classrooms, and clear curriculum guidelines for senior high.

“They actually did not know what subjects to introduce. They did not have teachers. They did not have classrooms. The shortage of 165,000 classrooms now, a large part of it was brought about by the non-preparation in 2013 to 2016. What they did next was they asked the colleges you can have a senior high school stand-alone so that your teachers can also help us out. We will give you vouchers,” Romulo recalled.

“What happened now? We found out that there were allegedly ghost senior high school vouchers.”

Romulo’s remarks came as both the House and the Senate pursue separate but aligned efforts to restructure the K-12 program. He expressed hope that a bicameral conference would reconcile the bills and finally produce a revised education framework that addresses both quality and employability.

[Editor’s note: This article was generated by a member of the News5 team using AI and then checked by an editor to ensure accuracy.]

(AGD)

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