The El Niño heat wave and the number of classrooms available may be primary concerns this school opening but the K-to-12 program looks to be the permanent education issue that Filipinos can ill-afford to ignore.
Militant youth groups launched a signature campaign and officials like Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV initiated moves to recall K to 12, which will make kindergarten mandatory and add two years to high school.
Unless the next administration decides to cancel the program, it looks like the K to 12 will become a permanent feature in the country’s curriculum.
Much as we want to avoid it, it’s something that should be implemented now rather than later.
Lost in the raging debate over its implementation is the integration of our economy with the rest of Southeast Asia.
As had been pointed out, the Philippines is one of three countries in the world and the last in Asia with a 10-year education program.
With the integration of Southeast Asian economies into one region, workers within the area can apply for jobs in the Philippines and elsewhere in the Asean. This means Filipinos will compete with foreigners for already scarce jobs in the local market.
Filipinos can also apply for jobs in other countries but with the existing 10-year education program, their likelihood of employment is slim at best. The Technical Education Skills and Development Authority developed programs that will ensure hiring abroad of Filipino workers, on mostly blue-collar jobs like welding, industrial arts and the hospitality management sector.
What’s to stop multinational companies from hiring foreigners over Filipino job applicants whose résumés may pale in comparison to their counterparts under an integrated Asean economy?
The bone of contention against the K-to-12 program lies in the additional expenses incurred by parents and the displacement of teachers whose training may not be up to K-to-12 standards.
Those opposing the K-to-12 program would probably cease their opposition and even welcome it if the national government or the state, like those in the US, Europe and other First World countries, shoulders the costs of education, at least up to high school.
Unfortunately, the country doesn’t have that luxury.
And neither does the Philippines have the luxury of putting off K to 12 any longer than necessary.
It’s either we sink or swim in the turbulent waters of the global economic order.
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