What are the two additional years in the K to 12 curriculum for?
Remember that one of the main reasons for extending basic education is to decongest the curriculum. We want to give students two more years to learn what they are now learning in only 10. Teachers today are forced to rush through their lessons because they want to finish the curriculum, whether students can keep up or not. Starting this year, therefore, we expect a lot more depth or internalization of learning from our public schools.
Another reason for extending basic education is to give students enough knowledge and skills to enter the job market immediately upon graduation from high school. Philippine employers have already agreed (in writing!) that they will hire high school graduates provided that they are, first, already 18 years old and legally allowed to work, and second, prepared to do the jobs needed by companies.
What are these jobs? To answer this question, the Department of Education (DepEd) turned to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). DOLE gave a list of the jobs most in demand by employers. (The list is on the DOLE website.) Among them, for example, are jobs in call centers, shipping, and hotels.
DepEd then asked the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) how to train students to prepare for these particular jobs. TESDA listed the courses that it now offers that are directly relevant to the jobs mentioned by DOLE. Among these courses, for example, are Internet and Computing Fundamentals (ICF), Technical Drawing, Home Management / Housekeeping, Cooking / Food Processing, Electrical Installation & Maintenance, Dressmaking / Tailoring, Carpentry, Crop Production, Animal Production, and Caregiving.
TESDA even has a course on Entrepreneurship, meant for those that want to work on their own and start their own businesses.
For the numerous jobs available in call centers and backroom processing, DepEd turned to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), which enthusiastically embraced the idea of having a lot more people to choose from to fill their vacancies. In fact, some call centers are now training out-of-school 18-year-olds (youth that have not even finished high school), because the demand is extremely high for people with good language and people skills. (As everybody knows by now, we have beaten India to the title of call center of the world.)
At the same time, it cannot be denied that a number of Filipinos would rather take higher studies than work at once. In fact, even those that have to work immediately for financial reasons may eventually save tuition money for college or even study part-time as working students. To prepare all students for college (including those planning to work at once), DepEd has designed a curriculum that conforms to what the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) calls “College Readiness Standards” (CRS).
In short, to plan the curriculum for the two extra years, as well as for the existing 10 years, DepEd is working with DOLE, TESDA, CHED, and the private sector. The K to 12 program is, in reality, a multi-agency, private-public partnership (PPP).
Let us talk a little bit about the CRS.
First of all, CHED does not intend to change its General Education Curriculum (GEC) until the K to 12 program is fully underway. This means that we have to wait for students to finish the full 12 years of basic education. This does not mean that we have to wait until 2018 (when the first batch or cohort of students entering Grade 7 or First Year of the New Junior High School will have graduated). There are schools that will start offering or modelling Grade 11 this coming June and will graduate students with 12 years of basic education by 2014.
CHED’s CRS explicitly states: “No one can enter college or university without 12 years of formal pre-university education excluding kindergarten or its pre-school equivalent.” That requirement cannot be imposed until there are actual graduates from Grade 12.
Second, because much of the content of the current first two years of college will be taken up within K to 12, there will be a major change in the GEC. Says the CRS: “As a result of the CRS (and assuming basic education meets the standards), the foundation courses in college (e.g., basic math, science, and communication) will no longer be necessary at the university level.”
There are all kinds of implications of this statement that need to be discussed by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), particularly private ones. A huge number of college teachers teach only GEC subjects. What will happen to them? Will they lose their jobs? Can they transfer to high schools? How can they teach in high school when most of them have not taken the required Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET)?
We are not even talking about the two years (June 2016 to March 2018) when students will be in Senior High School (SHS) rather than in freshman or sophomore year in college (this is informally called “The Gap,” pronounced with a gasp).
Not to worry. There are solutions to The Ga(s)p.
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