EXPLAINER: Why state universities, colleges will stop accepting senior high
FILE PHOTO: ORIENTATION Students of Barangka National High School in Marikina City attend an orientation meeting on the entry of Grade 11 students under the K-12 program. Classes open today in public elementary and high schools nationwide. NIÑO JESUSORBETA
CEBU CITY, Philippines – State universities and colleges in the country will no longer offer senior high school programs for the upcoming school year 2024-2025.
Recently, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) confirmed that operations of senior high school in state universities and colleges (SUCs), as well as local universities and colleges (LUCs), will have to cease in the next academic year.
Prospero De Vera III, CHED Commissioner, released a memorandum dated December 18, 2023, instructing state-owned universities and colleges to no longer accept senior high students.
But why did the CHED come up with this decision, and how will it affect incoming senior high students?
Why stop accepting senior high?
CHED’s newest memo goes all the way back to the K to 12 curriculum.
It has been more than a decade since the country implemented the K to 12 in basic education.
Between the school years 2016-2017 to 2020-2021, the education sector of the Philippines then had to undergo an adjustment in what officials referred to as the ‘transition period’.
Within this duration, higher educational institutions, both state-owned and private, experienced a significant drop of enrollees, particularly in the freshmen and sophomore levels, as a result of the additional two years of basic education brought by the K to 12.
To address this, the government allowed public universities and colleges to teach senior high school programs.
In 2015, CHED entered into an agreement with the Department of Education (DepEd) to formalize this arrangement.
However, the agreement is only valid during the transition period of the K to 12 curriculum, which covered the school years 2016-2017 to 2020-2021.
With the transition period complete, SUCs and LUCs will no longer have any legal basis to ask for funding of their senior high school operations, De Vera explained.
In addition, tertiary schools are not mandated to provide basic education programs.
Exceptions
On the other hand, CHED clarified that there are exceptions to the discontinuing of senior high school programs in SUCs and LUCs.
Only public HEIs that maintain the so-called ‘laboratory schools’ are allowed to continue offering senior high school (SHS) programs.
What about the students?
Following CHED’s announcement, the government identified more than 17,000 Grade 11 students currently enrolled in SUCs and LUCs who might be displaced in the next school year.
“Those that will be displaced have two options next school year: Enroll in public schools or if they would prefer to do so, they may also enroll in private schools and avail [themselves] of the voucher program,” Education Undersecretary Michael Poa told reporters on Wednesday.
Here in Central Visayas, only two SUCs and LUCs offered senior high school programs, said DepEd-7 director, Dr. Salustiano Jimenez.
These are the University of the Philippines in Cebu and an LUC in Siquijor.
The DepEd-7 official said that if these two schools would halt their SHS operation, only less than a thousand learners would be affected. / with reports from Futch Anthony Inso, Philippine Daily Inquirer, INQUIRER.net
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