Education chief ‘Sonny’ Angara. (Photo from DZAR 1026 SMNI Radio)
Following a review that found the senior high school (SHS) curriculum too congested and lacking focus on students’ core competencies, the Department of Education (DepEd) begins the Revised K-to-12 today in a bid to decongest the curriculum and better accommodate and address criticisms and likewise calls for reform.
The move to decongest the SHS curriculum will now be tested fully with the pilot implementation of the revised program in some 889 schools nationwide, 12 years after K-to-12 was formally approved through Republic Act No. 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.
K-to-12 added two years to the country’s basic education system but it has drawn flack in the past decade, stemming from inadequate resources, higher costs for parents, poor quality of education and the lack of skills among SHS graduates.
Late last year, no less than President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. himself enthused that the program did not improve the employability of Filipinos.
Under the revised program implemented this school year, core subjects to be taken by all Grade 11 students have been reduced from 15 per semester to five per year. In addition, there will now be just two tracks—Academic and Technical Professional or TechPro—from four. Grade 11 and 12 students are also free to choose their elective subjects regardless of track.
Despite the revision though, K-to-12’s critics insist that SHS should be removed altogether because it overburdens most parents with additional time and finances.
In fact, Senate President Pro Tempore Jose Pimentel ‘Jinggoy Estrada’ Ejercito Jr. earlier filed Senate Bill No. 3001, or the proposed Rationalized Basic Education Act, to address the issue, stressing that students and parents should no longer “shoulder the extra time and cost of senior high school.”
SB 3001 proposes one year of kindergarten, six years of elementary education and four years of secondary education before moving on to college.
Meanwhile, with the implementation of the revised K-to-12 program, education Secretary Sonny Angara admitted that he expects it would be a difficult year for the sector, citing a shortage of 165,000 classrooms nationwide.
Angara also noted that it would take more than half a century to eliminate the classroom backlog if the government maintains its current pace of construction.