What now, Armin?

Summer classes at the University of San Carlos Talamban campus have been disrupted by a strike waged by workers of the university's general services department who have been terminated as a cost-cutting measure in anticipation of the effects of K to 12 on college enrollment by 2016.

K to 12 is a program of the Department of Education which adds two years to the basic curriculum. This means that by 2016, those who are supposed to graduate from high school in the previous curriculum will no longer do so. Instead of going to college, they will have to take two additional years of senior high school.

Thus, for two straight years, from 2016 to 2017, those who will be going to senior high (Grade XI and Grade XII) instead of going to college will consequently deprive colleges and universities of enrollment for two straight years.

This will be a big blow to the income of these schools, and if these schools are now scrambling to adopt measures meant to address the looming problem, that is perfectly understandable, that is until these measures affect the lives of people, which is now what is happening at USC-TC.

And if these people are now striking, that is perfectly understandable too. The terminated workers of the general services department of USC-TC have not been terminated for cause. They have done nothing wrong except to be, in the eyes of the university, the most expendable at this point among its employees.

I am pretty sure there will be more to be terminated. From what departments, I do not know. But everyone must now be getting sleepless nights pondering over their uncertain fate. The only thing certain here is that it will not only be San Carlos. There will be more colleges and universities to follow suit.

And judging by the reaction of the terminated USC-TC employees, there might possibly be strikes at every college and university campus nationwide if termination becomes the chosen means by which these schools hope to cope with the effects of K to 12.

Good if the strikes are contained within the campuses of schools. But what if students take the side of the terminated workers? What if workers from other sectors join in? What if the example set by the terminated workers at USC-TC catches fire and becomes a nationwide conflagration?

These are but just questions for now. But the possibilites are indeed dire. And it is not even the fault of USC or even of its terminated workers. This is all the fault of Noynoy Aquino and his education secretary Armin Luistro who rammed K to 12 down the collective throat of the nation.

I say rammed down the throat because Luistro, emboldened by the fact that Noynoy never sees anything wrong with his men, refused to heed the nationwide opposition to his plan and went ahead with K to 12 despite the unreadiness of the country to embrace it.

 Luistro is like a horse with blinders. All he sees is what is in front of him. And what Luistro sees in front of him is the fact that most countries have 12 years of basic education. So, for no other reason than that, he went ahead with K to 12 and refused to see and anticipate the many pitfalls that lay in the way.

Look, nobody is opposed to an additional two years of high school. What the vast majority of Filipinos oppose is the immediate implementation of K to 12. There are simply too many problems bugging the educational system as it is without having to be saddled immediately by two additional years.

But Luistro would have none of that and even went to the extent of (I will not say lying because he is a religious brother) peddling the incredible. In Cebu, for instance, he said public hearings were all in favor of K to 12. But no such public hearing was made. Ask the Cebu media if ever they had any news about it.

And because some critics said he should have focused on building more classrooms instead of trying to keep up with the Joneses, Luistro went on tv to deny any shortage of classrooms. His logic? Because in rural areas there are classrooms without students. Is he saying Manila students should go fill these empty rooms?

Perhaps to put Luistro in his proper place, schools were among the most severely affected by Yolanda across the Visayas, as if God meant to say to him "What now, Armin?" And what now, Armin, indeed. What do we do with K to 12 given the destruction by Yolanda and the sneak preview of things to come as shown at USC-TC?