EDITORIAL - K to 12 can still be scrapped

The looming problem of colleges and universities not getting any enrollment for two years beginning 2016 when the much-ballyhooed K to 12 program kicks in has not gotten any real attention at the highest level of government.

What we have been hearing are only hiccups of compartmentalized concern such as from the Commission on Higher Education which, after some hemming and hawing, eventually realized there is nothing it can do and so was forced to admit that college teachers who will have no one to teach may be forced into early retirement.

Yes. Just like that, the most stinging and humiliating cavalier dismissal of a problem anybody has seen in the history of career professionalism. Hundreds, if not thousands, of college teachers all over the country will be forced into early retirement through no fault of their own. And that's that.

And the worst thing about this looming crisis is that it is not exactly unforeseen. It is difficult to believe that the bright boys who cooked up K to 12, for no other reason than we want to be like other countries whose basic education curriculum spans 12 years, could not have seen this crisis coming.

If they did not see it, then that is a case for criminal negligence for which charges out to be filed against the responsible parties. But then again, it is difficult to believe they did not see it. Which means they must have seen but decided to press on anyway because it feels good to be in, to join the 12-year league.

But all is not too late. President Aquino will bow out of office by 2016, at about the same time that third year high school students now, or grade nine students as how the K to 12 program prefers to call them, will be graduating but instead of going to college will be made to go through two more years of senior high.

Maybe his greatest legacy before bowing out of office will be to put a stop to this madness called K to 12. While 12 years of high school is good, the Philippines is simply not ready for it. More so that education in many parts of the country has suffered on account of Yolanda and other calamities and conflicts.

Whatever steps may have already been taken as part of K to 12 will always be counted in favor of the students. Whatever gains may have been achieved through these steps can no longer be taken away from them. But it would be sheer folly to proceed when virtually all circumstances just do not favor it.

Just as in constructing a building, or in concreting a highway, the foundation has to be taken care of first. It must be made strong enough to sustain and support whatever is built over it. If the K to 12 is a building or a road, the government simply decided to build it without checking the integrity of the foundation.