This gov't. has a thing with K

Things never seem to go right with the letter K under this administration. Remember the 3Ks — Kaibigan, Kaklase, Kabarilan? They made up the fatal credibility problem responsible for the failure of Noynoy Aquino’s “daang matuwid” principle of governance to take off the ground.

Then there is the K+12 program which Noynoy and his hard-headed and not-so-forthright secretary of education insist on implementing this schoolyear, for no other reason than that the Philippines, kuno, is the only country left in the world with a 10-year basic curriculum.

Let us jump to the next K-thing and go back to that later. This administration, ever on the lookout for ideas to steal (the tourism slogans of two countries and the assassination plot against Vladimir Putin) has just copied Efren Penaflorida and repackaged his concept as KKKK.

Peñaflorida was the guy CNN named as its Hero of the Year in 2009 for literally pushing an alternative learning program meant to reach out to streetchildren by means of a “kariton” or wooden pushcart laden with educational materials.

There is no need to explain Peñaflorida and his “kariton.” But the DepEd sure has a lot of explaining to do when it adopted his advocacy as a matter of policy to solve one of the most basic problems of Philippine education — lack of access to classrooms.

To make sure it does not mirror the original, the DepEd Calls its “brilliant new idea” as KKKK — “Kariton, Klasrum, Klinik, Kantin” — then enlisted the help of other agencies like DSWD, the PNP, AFP, and local governments to ensure more hands are involved if the broth spoils.

How uncomprehending can this government get! With Peñaflorida, the “kariton” classroom (let us not idiotize our schoolchildren with “klasrum”) was admirable because it was one man’s desire to help alleviate, in his own small way, the problem of classroom shortage.

But in the case of the national government, with all the resources under its disposal, to embark on a “kariton” program to address the massive nationwide shortage of classrooms is, to say it mildly, sheer lunacy.

Is there anybody in charge? Or is the ship of state just drifting with the tide, taking directions from every flotsam it encounters? Let us build classrooms, for God’s sake, not a fleet of “karitons.”

And here is where I start to get really worried. Instead of regular teachers (of which there is a shortage because those who ought to highly qualified are lured by other, better paying jobs), the DepEd is tapping volunteers from a company Penaflorida has set up.

This whole rigmarole is the surest and quickest way to national academic retrogression and effectively contradicts government’s stated intentions with regard to K+12, which is to make the Philippines supposedly at par with the rest of the world.

Well, how can we be at par with the world when, instead of classrooms, we are building “karitons” to be manned by volunteers instead of regular teachers? On the other hand, parity has no business determining the educational policies of a country.

Even if we are the only country in the world with a 10-year basic curriculum, that still does not make us inferior to many other countries. Without meaning to disparage anyone, I think we are still way ahead of such countries as Pakistan, Burkina Faso, North Korea, or Guatemala.

Conversely, even adding 20 years to basic education will not bring us to par with, say, Singapore or the USA. Our problem is we love to compare ourselves with the best countries in the world without asking first if we have the means, and the discipline, to do what they do.

Implementing K+12 is also anchored on the big lie that public consultations were made. No such thing happened. What were held were dialogues with teachers who naturally cannot object, and pro forma congressional hearings in a few areas that lacked multi-sectoral representation.

The education of a country is too important to entrust to leaders who refuse to take valuable lessons from the greatest teacher of all — reality. DepEd could have sent questionnaires to parents for a true pulse of the nation. But of course it feared 100 percent rejection.