K-12 in the eyes of a Mother and a Teacher
K- 12 has been a concern not only of educators but also parents since its implementation last 2012. K- 12 is a curriculum that has been legislated and now being boldly implemented without substantial study and preparedness. In a poverty-stricken country like the Philippines, education is not a necessity but a privilege for the few. The call for the suspension of the said curriculum is inevitable. The present administration’s vision on the curriculum exceeded the capability of the government in its implementation.
What is K-12?
K-12 means Kindergarten and the 12 years of elementary and secondary education. Elementary education from grades 1-6 and secondary education compose of junior high grades 7-9 and senior high school from grades 10-12. The vision of the curriculum is grounded on the desire to create a productive citizen with mastery of all the necessary core competencies and skills that will enable them to be globally competent. An additional year for senior high school will prepare the students to learn relevant skills needed for them to be employed in the future. The goal is to make the students a holistic individual that can compete globally and a basic education that is internationally recognized.
Indeed, it is a very noble and remarkable vision and goals! However how are we doing right now? What is the real scenario? How did we accept the big “change”?
In the eyes of a Mother
All parents dream of giving the best education to their children, an education that can provide them a good future. K-12 program per se is a good curriculum considering its vision and goals. Nevertheless, an additional two years in secondary education is an additional burden for parent who are trying to make ends meet. Two years that maybe spent in earning an associate degree in a university will now be spent in senior high school. Free public education is not absolute. Parents still need to provide lunch money, project, school supplies, and fare in going to and from school. K-12 program eliminates the opportunity to other siblings in the family to go to school because one of the children still needs to finish his senior high school. In many studies conducted in our country, the survival rate of the students in school has been very low. Most of the reasons is financial or economic problems. Additional two years in high school will worsen the situation. The success of our children is not solely dependent with the number of years that they stayed in school but rather on the values they learned and availability of opportunities for them in the society.
In the eyes of a Teacher
Teachers has been a good soldier in many situations. As a second mother, we want the best education for our students. The implementation of K- 12 has been a professional ordeal for educators. We were obliged to implement a program that is hastily implemented and lack of preparation. There are many ambiguities in the implementation of the program. Few of these are; Materials for K -12 has been a problem since 2012 until now. Modules that were used during its first year of implementation were not finished. The lack of preparation is very prevalent to the quality of the learning materials. The department cannot even decide on what grading system are they going to use. The grading system was changed after two years (Deped Order no. 8, s., 2015). Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas that was a part of the curriculum during its first year was replaced by Kasaysayan ng Bansang Asyano on its second year of implementation. Trainings of teachers were done only for few days (6 days) before the start of each academic year.
A curriculum as important as K -12 as what the government is claiming and as the budget allocated implied, should be implemented efficiently. It should undergo a careful and feasible planning and preparation before it will be implemented. Teachers welcome change as we look at it as a challenge. However, in implementing change, we need to avoid experimentation on the subject thus creating “collateral damages” to our learners. We cannot implement a program and use it to our students with out making sure that it will benefit them. Students are not guinea pigs. We cannot experiment on them. Education is a life long process. The best material are teachers. In the implementation of the curriculum, we need to invest on trainings of teachers. Teachers need to be competent in the curriculum to deliver quality education to the learners.
K- 12 should be suspended. An extensive preparation is essential before its implementation. We need to have viable plans on what to do with teachers that will be displaced or retrenched because of K-12. We need to solve first the shortages of classrooms, teachers, modern equipments, and books, before implementing a curriculum that will add more problems to our educational system. There should be a clear system on how the curriculum should be implemented. Proper orientation and trainings for teachers should be provided. Political will is also necessary to uplift not only the quality of education but also the life of every family in our country.
By Anabelle Santillan Dela Cerna
