K to 12 will stay – Briones
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2020 16:15:13 +0000
THE government will continue to implement the K to12 program despite the criticism of some groups that the program has failed to improve the quality of education, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said on Monday.
Briones said the program was being reviewed but debates on whether the education program should be abolished should no longer be an issue.
“As a matter of fact, we should have started this a long time ago,” she said during a roundtable discussion with editors and reporters of The Manila Times.
Passed in 2012, the K to 12 program covers kindergarten to senior high school (SHS) education, adding two years to basic education — six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of SHS.
But teachers groups had said the program had not lived up to its promise to enhance education and train students.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers Philippines said it expected DepEd and Congress to conduct an “honest-to-goodness” review that would expose the failures of the program in improving the access to basic education.
The Federation of Associations of Private Schools and Administrators (Fapsa) backed the curriculum review, saying the “tracks and strands in senior high school are simply the basic education offered in first year college but not well coordinated with Commission on Higher Education nor Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.”
“They are supposed to facilitate graduates in college but students now just switch courses making SHS track ineffective since they are not considered pre-requisite in tertiary courses as initially promised,” Fapsa President Eleazardo Kasilag said.
Briones said the review covers the curriculum and the performance of teachers.
“Its not only the curriculum. We are also [looking into] our teachers. We also have to catch up with facilities because everyday, with all the changes in technology in education and so on, we have to keep up,” she added.
The Philippines had the lowest ranking in the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment, where 600,000 15-year-old students in 79 countries were tested on reading comprehension, science and math.
Briones said it was the first time the Philippines joined the assessment.
“I would like to emphasize this because we will be blamed for whatever the results would be,” she said.
Briones said she was reluctant in joining the international assessment because she did not believe in ranking countries.
“They are very different from each other. Different education system, different technologies, and different ways of teaching, and taking charge of learners and students,” she said.
The DepEd recently launched its Sulong EduKalidad initiative, which aims to improve the quality of education in the country.
Briones explained that Sulong Edukalidad will have KITE as its four key reform areas — K to 12 Curriculum review and update; Improvement of learning environment, Teachers’ upskilling and reskilling; and Engagement of stakeholders for support and collaboration.
She added that teachers matter because they are the ones who guide learners.
“I think I reported to the Cabinet that there is a clear correlation between the performance of our teachers in science and math, and the performance of our children also in science and math,” she said.