K-12 public hearings

The House of Representatives has a Committee on Basic Education and Culture, composed of 65 members, chaired by Rep. Salvador H. Escudero III. The Committee is mandated to propose legislation on “all matters directly and principally relating to pre-school, elementary and secondary education, science high schools except the Philippine Science High School System, teachers’ and students’ welfare, alternative learning systems and community adult education, the national language, libraries and museums, and the preservation and enrichment of Filipino culture.”

The Committee has been going around the country holding public hearings on the proposed bills adding two more years to our basic education system. I have been privileged to have been designated a Resource Person during these hearings. I went to the first one (in Iloilo), but following the orders of my doctors, had to skip the next ones (in Cebu and Davao). Fortunately, Paraluman Giron, recently retired Regional Director of DepEd, was willing to substitute for me.

Last week, I was in Cagayan de Oro City with some of the members of the Committee, namely, Reps. Jorge Almonte, Fatima Aliah Dimaporo, Florencio Flores Jr., Mariano Piamonte Jr., Rufus Rodriguez, and Pryde Henry Teves. Escudero presided over the three-hour public hearing. Rodriguez was our extremely generous host.

I am usually given fifteen minutes to start the session with a briefing on K-12. Using a PowerPoint presentation prepared by DepEd (which I revise to suit the audience), I tackle three basic questions: Why, How, and When.

I begin by pointing out that the K-12 program involves not only DepEd, but also various other agencies of the executive branch of government (such as CHED, TESDA, DSWD, DOST, DOLE, ECCDC, and NCCA), as well as the House and the Senate (which have to pass the necessary laws).

Since the Why is being tackled extensively nationwide by the Speakers Bureau of DepEd, I start with it. Primarily, we need to add two more years because we cannot effectively teach in ten years twelve years’ worth of lessons, 16-year-old graduates of the current ten-year program are too young to be employed or to start a business, and our country has the shortest basic education cycle in Asia.

I then add my own analysis of the drop-out statistics of DepEd. You know what I mean: out of 100 students in Grade 1, only 43 finish high school and only 23 enrol in college, leaving 20 unemployable young persons in limbo. I then point out that these out-of-school youth are obvious beneficiaries of the K-12 program, because they can be in school for another two years learning skills that will get them jobs not requiring a college degree.

I spend most of my allotted time on the How. I show how the program enhances the present educational system. I focus on what makes the K-12 program essentially different from the present system. In both Junior High School (Grades 7-10) and Senior High School (Grades 11-12), the decongesting or loosening up of the curriculum will allow students to take up electives that are directly related to livelihood.

Examples of these electives are subjects that will prepare a student for his or her choice of the most in-demand jobs in the Philippines and abroad (as listed by DOLE on their website), such as welding, call center agent, waiter, electrical technician, sales person, merchandiser, plumber, cook, mason, and the like. TESDA has tried-and-tested training programs for these types of in-demand jobs, and it is working closely with DepEd to ensure that the electives will match industry needs.

Academically inclined students can take electives to prepare them for higher-level college subjects.

I end by showing the timeline of the program (the When).

The program has actually begun, with the registration of children in free Kindergarten classes (handled by DepEd and DSWD). The K in K-12 starts in a couple of weeks.

Next year, the children now in Kindergarten will be in Grade 1. They will follow the new K-12 curriculum, which is being fine-tuned by inter-agency Task Forces involving various government and private groups and individuals.

Also next year, the students entering Grade 7 (what we now call First Year High School) will also be following the new curriculum. They will form the first cohort or batch to have six years of secondary education. This batch will enter college or start working in 2018. That gives Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) enough time to revise their curriculum and staffing.

DepEd has an entire year to train next year’s Grade 1 and Grade 7 teachers. A year later, they will train the teachers of Grade 2 and Grade 8. By training teachers of only two grade levels per year, training resources will not be overstretched.

DepEd also has time to build the extra classrooms for Grades 11 and 12, since the first affected cohort will reach Grade 11 only in 2016.

So far, the public hearings have elicited mostly supportive and constructive responses. This is a good sign that the public now understands why President Noynoy Aquino made the addition of two years to basic education the key to his program of education reform.

Working with them closely, I must say that our Representatives in Congress are impressive persons, with hearts firmly set on helping the poor get employed and the country catch up with our neighbors.