036 K-12 Revisited (2)
Let me be clear—I do believe that Philippine basic education is in crisis.
However, I wouldn’t say that it’s because of the K-12 Program. The quality of education has been a problem long before the program came into being.
That said, I wouldn’t say K-12 was any good either. If at all, the cost of adding two more years of basic ed through what they call Senior High School—Grades 11 and 12–could have been better used to address shortages in the K-10 years (Imagine the possibilities!).
And as I have pointed out previously, I had stated my apprehensions regarding the program when it was being deliberated—a decade ago—through my From Fallacy to Fear commentary.
With news of the incoming president interested in reviewing the program, I saw it fit to revisit the K-12 Program myself, specifically, to revisit what I wrote about it, to see if my ideas remain valid 10 years after I had published my commentary on the program.
And I’m happy to say that I stand by what I wrote. Yes, it has stood the test of time.
Sadly, this also means that we could have fixed a lot of K-12’s flaws had these shortcomings been addressed at the very start.
One fear I had then was the false hopes that it would be giving the public—the parents, most especially—that with K-12, they can relax in knowing that young Filipinos—their children—are getting the “world class” education they need since we’re already aligned with “international standards”.
Of course, I’m not saying that the proponents deliberately misled the public into thinking that way. I’m just saying that this would be the impression a lot of people would get from what had been explained to them back then.
The logic is simple—If you say that the quality of Philippine basic education is low because we have K-10 while the rest of the world is K-12, and you go K-12, then we would no longer have a quality problem.
That’s so wrong. But that’s what the average person—with no background of basic education governance—would think.
And it’s no wonder why they’d be aghast at the results of international benchmarks PISA and TIMSS, which showed that the Philippines is at the very bottom. To people in the know, this was to be expected.
So, here we are, under the K-12 regime. And quality issues still exist (an understatement really). What do we do next?
The president’s call for a review is a good start. However, we shouldn’t jump the gun by simply providing stopgap measures here and there, or worse, reverse the K-12 program altogether.
The first step, I think, is to get our facts straight.
I’d gladly share my ten-year-old critique with people who are interested in really understanding these K-12 facts—and these K-12 flaws—since, as I said, I’m quite sure that piece remains valid even after a decade. It’s a good way to jumpstart the process of having an objective review of K-12.
What then do I think should be done to fix the K-12 Program? Well, that’s for another blog.
In the meantime, and I dare say no matter what happens to K-12, we still need to come up with more innovative solutions to address the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.