The two extra years

Now that it is certain that two years will be added to the basic education cycle, it is time to think about what those years will look like.

I propose a simple, quick, and doable solution to the problem of formulating a curriculum for the extra two years. My modest proposal, which will involve the least disruption in the status quo, can be done in four easy steps. The first three steps can be done in one day. The last step will take two years.

First, the new DepEd Secretary should issue a Department Order renaming every level as a “Grade.” This means that we will do away with the words “First Year” and so on and replace them with “Grade 7” or “Seventh Grade” and so on. The change of names is important to avoid the awkward “Fifth Year” and “Sixth Year” (which can be expected to be renamed popularly anyway as “Junior Year” and “Senior Year”) and to justify the word “K-12.”

Second, DepEd has to add to the mandate of the Bureau of Secondary Education (BSE), which now supervises only Grades 7 to 10. The new DepEd Secretary should issue a Department Order giving BSE the supervision of Grades 7 to 12.

Third, DepEd can use the current curriculum for First to Fourth Year for Grades 7 to 10. That means that the Bureau of Elementary Education (BEE) can do what it is doing now with Grades 1 to 6, and BSE can do what it is doing now with Grades 7 to 10. Students will still move physically from elementary schools to high schools when they reach Grade 7.

Instead of thinking of a “bridging program” between Grade 6 and First Year, we will no longer have any kind of bridge. A bridging program assumes that we have failed to teach students what they should have learned by Grade 6. We should not plan on the basis of failure. Instead, we should plan on the basis of success. Especially now that Noynoy has promised “Every Child a Reader by Grade 1,” we should assume that our Grade 6 students are really ready for Grade 7 (the current First Year).

Fourth, use the original General Education Curriculum (GEC) of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) – GEC-A rather than its variations – as the curriculum for Grades 11 and 12.

We can start having Grade 11 in June 2011, thus giving us enough time to train DepEd teachers or hire current GEC teachers to teach in high school. We can use the existing textbooks for GEC, thus removing the need for a Textbook Call; DepEd can simply decide which textbooks are appropriate and buy those.

Grade 12 can start by June 2012, completing the process of adding two years within the first three years of the next presidency. Noynoy Aquino would then have dramatically fulfilled his major education-related promise in record time.

Let me tackle the obvious objections.

First, what will students do when they go to college? This is one reason my modest proposal neatly solves yet another problem. The time allotted to GEC can be used to conform to the Bologna Process, which requires three years of major subjects rather than two.

Second, what will college teachers affected by the change do? They can do one of two things: they can either move to public high school (where starting salaries are, in many cases, higher) or they can teach the extra college year of major subjects. In either case, they will not be unemployed.

Third, what will CHED do about General Education (GE)? Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will have to decide if they want to follow the European model (three years with no GE) or the American model (four years with one year of GE). If they follow the European model, there is nothing to formulate except the curriculum for the extra year of major subjects. If they follow the American model, they have to do a new GEC.

Fourth, what will HEIs do while students who should be going to First Year College are forced to stay for two more years in high school? Will most private HEIs close due to the lack of students paying tuition? Not if the Education Plan of Noynoy Aquino is followed. That plan provides for half of two cohorts (batches or classes) to be accelerated.

What could happen is that half the cohort entering Grade 11 in June 2012 (those passing a Scholastic Achievement – not Aptitude – Test) will go directly to college. Similarly, half the cohort entering Grade 12 in June 2013 will go directly to college.

To help private HEIs cope with the decrease in freshman enrollment, CHED will have to do what it is supposed to do to begin with, namely, to prohibit government schools (State and Local Universities and Colleges) from offering courses already offered by private HEIs. Students from government schools who want to take up these majors will then have to go to private HEIs. CHED can use its scholarship fund to help freshmen in need of tuition money.

This is a neat fast-track solution that works on paper. There is no reason for it not to work in real life. Calling the next DepEd Secretary and the next CHED Commissioners!