Can senior high school be deferred?

There are moves by a noisy minority to defer the implementation of Senior High School. Since the K to 12 reform can no longer be stopped because it has been institutionalized by two laws, they want instead of simply stop the process in midstream and postpone the formal opening of Senior High School (SHS) in 2016.

Let us see what will happen if they succeed.

First of all, Filipinos who are now or will be employed as marine engineers or seamen will be out of a job. International authorities have already said that the lack of two years in our basic education automatically disqualifies Filipinos from working on ships.

Second, Filipino engineers will remain mere technicians and will not be employed as engineers abroad. (There are a handful of Filipino engineers that prove the rule; these are exceptionally gifted individuals who have found proper professional employment abroad despite the lack of two years of basic education.)

The protesters insist that Filipino seamen, engineers, and others working abroad constitute only ten percent of the population (or roughly 10 million) anyway. That is correct, but think of how many Filipinos depend on this ten percent. If each Filipino abroad has only five dependents in the Philippines, then there are 60 million Filipinos who will not be getting what is due them. That is definitely the majority of our population.

Third, SHS actually started in 2012 with a few model schools. In June 2015, more than a hundred schools will start SHS, as President Aquino has already publicly declared. These hundred or so schools have permission from the Department of Education (DepEd) to start SHS a year earlier than the original target of June 2016. What will happen to the thousands of students in these schools?

Fourth, the K to 12 reform involves a radical change in the curriculum not only of basic education but even of higher education. The most important aspect of the reform as far as the current issue is concerned is spiraling. The content of subjects that used to be taught only for ten years has been parceled out into 12 (actually 13, counting Kindergarten) parts.

One problem with the old curriculum was that Filipino students had to learn in 10 years what students in other countries studied in 12 or more years. As a result, most Filipino students did not really learn the subjects, as is obvious from their low marks in national standardized exams and college entrance exams. What students used to learn by Fourth Year High School (or Grade 10) is now more adequately learned only by the end of Grade 12.

If SHS is deferred, those now finishing Grade 10 will have an incomplete basic education. They cannot go to higher education. Let me repeat that: those now completing Grade 10 are not ready to go to college. The protesters, therefore, are condemning those now in high school to being half-educated and incapable of pursuing higher studies.

The time for protesting against the K to 12 reform is over. The Kindergarten Law and the K to 12 Law have both been passed and are now operating. Students now in school are using the new curriculum. There is no going back. Those advocating a return to the old system are not only holding back the education of our children but are actively working for their miseducation.

BALINTATAW. Congratulations to “Radyo Balintataw,” which won two major awards in the recent Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), namely, Best Entertainment Program and Best Drama Program in the Drama category.

Awards are not unexpected for the long-running show, now on DZRH for the last 22 years. The television show “Balintataw” (on what was then Channel 5) was named to the Hall of Fame of the CMMA after it won all the annual awards from 1967 to 1972, when it was closed down by martial law.

After martial law, when it was revived first on television and later on radio, “Balintataw” started winning awards again. It was even featured on CNN as a model for socially-proactive media (in a program hosted by Jane Fonda).

NATIONAL BOOK DEVELOPMENT BOARD. My second term as a Governor of the National Book Development Board (NBDB) ended last Monday. I am grateful to President Aquino for having appointed me to that position which allowed me to help chart the course of writing and publishing in the country.

The National Book Awards, jointly sponsored by the NBDB and the Manila Critics Circle, will be handed out this Saturday at the National Museum.

Congratulations to all the finalists and winners! They have proven, once again, that books authored and published in the Philippines can hold their own against the best books in the rest of the world.

Perhaps it is time for bookstores to abolish their “Filipiniana” or “Philippine Books” sections and instead display Philippine books together with imported books. Our books now are as good as, if not better than, most imported books.