A growing movement, triggered by the helplessness of Senior High School finishers to find jobs for whatever skills acquired in the K to 12 program– mandated by Republic Act 10533 of May 2013– reflects the dismal failure of three presidents— Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos Jr.-- to link the skills acquired in Grade 12 to both private and public sectors for the learners’ employability.
A study of the Philippine Business for Education showed that only 14 of 70 of leading companies in the country are willing to hire Senior High School (Grades 11 and 12) graduates. Most, including the government, prefer applicants with a college degree.
Another study in 2020 of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies showed that 70 percent of SHS graduates themselves choose to continue to tertiary or college level to get a bachelor’s degree with only 20 percent of graduates entering the labor force, contrary to projections.
Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte threw her support to revamping the K-12 curriculum based on her Basic Education Report in January 2023 to make the program “relevant to produce, competent, job-ready, active and responsible citizens.”
Operationalized in 2012, the K-12 setup has failed in its promise of producing after two years job-ready graduates of SHS, which former president and ex deputy speaker Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo described in her bill as “additional burden to parents and students.”
She is proposing to strengthen the technical, vocation, livelihood tracks of SHS where DepEd noted a reduction in enrollment to 28.93 % in 2021-2022 while those that went for academic track rose to 70%.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano previously blamed the lack of resources in certain tracks as the cause for “half-baked teaching facilities. What was promised was that the technical-vocational track would get a garage, testing equipment, motor and qualified professors while a sports track would be given an oval, gym, equipment, coaches and swimming pool.”
Duterte also mentioned the “congested” K-12 curriculum. She suggested that learning areas for K to Grade 3 be reduced from seven to five focused on basic skills in literacy and numeracy in the early grades and on revitalized programs in reading, science and technology, and math in later levels. But DepEd’s plan to merge history with music, arts, physical education and health has alarmed educators and should be studied more thoroughly.
Wrong
Those who say that Grades 11 and 12 would be scrapped by the DepEd are wrong because the Constitution provides that only the Senate and Congress can repeal a law, including the K to 12 implementation.
Arroyo’s proposed measure reverting to K to 10 plus 2 (this time no longer making Grades 11 and 12 mandatory) has reaped praises last April from ACT chair Vladimir Quetua who said “making Grades 11 and 12 voluntary is essentially an admission that K-12 is a failure.”
Arroyo’s measure makes the SHS curriculum a “pre-university education” required only for those proceeding to college or university.
ACT maintained the inutility of offering Grades 11 and 12 is shown by the fact that “not a single study has found the program effective.” Besides, this would address the teacher-classroom shortages and enable the reduction of class size to manageable levels,Quetua added.
Quetua also insisted that the K-12 curriculum “was not designed to bolster genuine national development program” but “worsened the perennial shortages in education.” He stressed that the basic education curriculum needs an overhaul to address the learning crisis and reorient it towards the objectives of national industrialization.
A 2018 PIDS study showed that jobs available to SHS graduates were confined to clerical support, crafts and related trades, elementary occupations and other entry level positions.
Govt biggest violator of K-12 Program
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian noted that hiring qualifications for entry level government positions lump SHS graduates with the 10-year old high school curriculum.
At a 2023 joint hearing of the Senate led by the basic education committee,chaired by Gatchalian he questioned a representative from the Civil Service Commission (CSC) on the qualification requirement for an entry level government position, which accepts both graduates of SHS and the 10-year high school curriculum.He then asked the representative: “How do you expect our private corporations to hire SHS students when the government itself does not hire SHS students?”
He said the government does not hire SHS graduates thereby making it the greatest violator of the K-12 law. He referred to a CSC memorandum circular of 2019 which enumerates government positions open to SHS graduates.
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