Wantsome Ecksome: August 2012

Another Economic problem: Education Program In The Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines—Adding two years to the present 10-year basic education cycle is “an absolutely essential reform” to put the country’s public education system at par with the rest of the world, an international education expert said on Wednesday.

Sheldon Shaeffer, director at the Bureau of Education of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Asia Pacific, said the K+12 program (Kindergarten plus 12 years) was a necessary reform “to make the system comparable to and competitive with other countries.”

Speaking at a lecture on school leadership at the Department of Education (DepEd), Shaeffer said a 12-year education cycle would be “more useful to the personal needs and employment opportunities” of its graduates.

“I actually don’t see how people can disagree with it,” said Shaeffer before an audience of top Philippine education officials and representatives from various schools.

The flagship education program of the Aquino administration, the K+12 basic education reform plan aims to improve the quality of Filipino high school graduates by adding two years of senior high school to the current 10-year education curriculum.

The two additional years in senior high school are envisioned to serve as a specialization period for high school students, whether in vocational skills, music, the arts or sports. This would give high school graduates the option to pursue jobs with a basic education diploma or proceed to college.

The program aims to make Philippine education at par with the rest of the world, with 12 years of basic schooling already a global standard.

According to the DepEd, only the Philippines, Angola and Djibouti have a 10-year basis schooling cycle.

Officials said the two-year shortcoming had proven problematic in the accreditation of Philippine graduates when applying for postgraduate courses and employment overseas.

Recently, Laos added a year to its 11-year-program, Shaeffer noted.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro acknowledged that the transition to a 12-year system would be difficult but noted that the Philippines was “already delayed” in coming up to the global standard.

“What we’re looking at now is how to implement it. In [implementing] any change, there will be difficulty and this is what we really have to work on together. It’s not possible for change to be painless,” Luistro said.

The DepEd started the phased implementation of K+12 in June 2011, with the institutionalized public kindergarten program for 5-year-olds. It is set to introduce a new curriculum for Grade 1 and 1st year high school when the school year opens in June this year.

If implemented on schedule, the full K+12 program will have its first graduates in March 2018.

Well yes, this is another economic problem to be discussed. This post is a discussion of the relation of Education, Poverty and Economic development.

Positive approach to the Economic Issue:

Philippines, as we all know, has just started the K plus 12 education program. It is very essential, experts says. Adding years to school gives more learning opportunities and gives more knowledge to students. The years that was added are years of total quality education and years of total formation. This new curriculum would actually assist students who could not afford to pursue college to earn a skilled workers diploma, improving their credentials than just being mere high school graduates, thus subject to abuse of underpayment and non contractual jobs without benefits by employers. This big change is good because I know that our government only wants the best, and this change will help not only us but also our country. The effect may not be instant, but in the long run, the K plus 12 will give a lot more opportunities and a lot more positive feedback.

K plus 12 will bring us to a new level. Students will be more than just students, in fact, one of the goals of this program is to help solve the problem of unemployment problem of the country among with the hopes of bringing us and making us globally competitive and educated. Adding years would also give students more time "thinking-of-what-course-to-take" while practicing and studying the skills and talent they know and have.

K+12 means Kindergarten and the 12 years of elementary and secondary education. Kindergarten refers to the 5-year old cohort that takes a standardized kinder curriculum. Elementary education refers to primary schooling that involves six or seven years of educationSecondary education refers to high school.How are we planning to implement the K+12 program?After considering various proposals and studies, the model that is currently being proposed by DepEd is the K-6-4-2 Model. This model involves Kindergarten, six years of elementary education, four years of junior high school (Grades 7 to 10) and two years of senior high school (Grades 11 to 12). The two years of senior high school intend to provide time for students to consolidate acquired academic skills and competencies.

· The time commitment may be too much for figure skaters and their families.

· It may be difficult for a parent to educate more than one or two children under the K12 program.

Negative approach to the Economic Issue:

I agree to the primary goal of the government but for some reason, there are more important things to do first, and to start first. Quality education? We all want it. I believe we all deserve it. As for the article, the Philippine Government should focus more or should focus first on the classrooms and the learning materials to be used. This is exactly why the people are divided in this program, reasons are because of the issues that relate to this new education system. The issues are the number of teachers that can actually teach, the adjusting of students, the availability of better classrooms, even schools, the availability of basic school supplies like books, notebooks, pencil, etc and most especially financial capacity of parents. It is very important to deal first with the main problem of education in the country. We know it's necessary, we know it's required, we knows it should be implemented, however, it is impossible, in the country's situation, that majority of the people can adopt to this big change, considering the parents who has barely enough to send their kids to school. Taking this big leap is very risky and it should be taken seriously, from materials, teachers, learning grounds and a lot more to consider. What is the point of extending education if our government cannot provide, much more Burden the parents.

As a young parent, I still agree to extending the number of years in school. I agree with this because my daughter is only a year old and I'm hoping that maybe in the years to come, the main issues of this program will be solved and may this program level up or be more stable. As a parent, I only want the best for my child, so I'm hoping that this program will be very successful, that our government will focus on making this program better, that by the time when my child will go to school this program will give her the education she deserves.

It's not either quality or quantity. We can have both quality education and the sufficient number of years of schooling. With all the new data students have to sink into their minds, they need to have more time to internalize knowledge.

Enrollment in a virtual public or private school involves time and commitment from both students and their families; this means 4 to 6 hours a day of "doing school." Some figure skaters find the demands of the K12 curriculum to be too much to handle; others find that the time devoted to a K12 education is well worth it since the quality of the K12 curriculum is superb.

As a student, I want to learn more and to live more. There are more things to learn, to know about and to deal with. I agree to this K plus 12 program. I just hope that this program will not be "Another economic problem" anymore.

LEONARD PATRICK ANTONIO CARRILLO
ECON211B MIDTERM PROJECT
8:45-9:45AM