By Clarist Zablan
(April 27, 2023) – A former president on Thursday proposed shortening the country’s secondary education back to four years, replacing senior high school with an optional two-year pre-university program in response to criticisms of the current K to 12 curriculum.
Deputy House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo filed a measure seeking to replace K to 12 with a “K + 10 + 2 program,” covering a compulsory Kindergarten school, six years of elementary school, and four years of high school.
An additional two years of “post-secondary, pre-university” education will only be required for learners who want to pursue professional studies such as accounting, engineering, law and medicine.
“In a country like the Philippines where the poverty incidence is 18%, there should be an option for the young to graduate from basic education soonest, after four years of high school, so that they can help their parents in their farms or micro-businesses,” Arroyo said in the bill’s explanatory note.
The pre-university program also aims to help enhance the chances of aspiring professionals to succeed in college or university and in securing a professional license, she said.
Arroyo noted that the addition of a two-year senior high school education in the basic curriculum failed in fulfilling its goal of making high school graduates employable, with most businesses in the private sector continuing to prefer college or university graduates.
A 2020 study from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) found that only one in five senior high school graduates enter the labor force, with the rest opting to pursue higher education instead to improve their job prospects.
“The failure of the K to 12 program to provide its graduates with promised advantages exacerbates the additional burden on parents and students imposed by two additional years of basic education,” she said.
In the Upper House, some senators have pushed for a review of the K to 12 program, citing various problems hounding the curriculum.
As many as 44% of Filipinos were dissatisfied with the K to 12 education system, based on a survey conducted by independent pollster Pulse Asia and commissioned by the Senate’s basic education committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian last year.
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte has launched a review of the K-12 curriculum, which she said is currently “congested,” to ensure that the program is still relevant in producing “competent, job-ready, active, and responsible citizens.”
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