K-12 wishful thinking?

EDITORIAL  

President Aquino recently signed a law on adding three extra years to the country’s 10-year basic education curriculum to make Filipino students at par with their peers in other countries.

Aquino said Republic Act No. 10533 institutionalizes a system of education that “truly imbues our youth with the skills they need to pursue their dreams.By signing this bill into law, we are not just adding two years of additional learning for our students; we are making certain that the coming generations are empowered to strengthen the very fabric of our society, as well as our economy,” he told lawmakers, Cabinet officials, diplomats and students.

But according to Benjie Valbuena, chairman of  Association of Concerned Teachers (ACT) “K12 is ill-prepared and incompetent.” A case in point, he said, is the Universal Kindergarten Program, adding the country lacks trained teachers and considering there are volunteer teachers who have not received their allowances last school year.

Grade 7 and Grade 8 teachers, he said, can attest that aside from modules for vocational trainings,equipment and tools for electrical, carpentry, and the like, are not available.

“Classrooms for such trainings are non-existent. Teachers are challenged to be innovative but how can they impart skills when basic tools are unavailable in the first place?Imagine” is the buzz word for voc-tech teachers when lecturing or in supposed workshops sessions with students because equipment and tools for voc-tech subjects are grossly insufficient.”

For this, he said, K12 must be junked. Government spokesmen however said the educational program must be implemented considering it is the law and whatever loopholes it has can be addressed.

The effect of this program can be assessed when students have advanced to the next level, although, like we cited in earlier articles, based from education authorities,  one factor in improving the educational system is training teachers to become more competent in their jobs. They say a teacher who doesn’t know her grammar has no business teaching English. That goes for other subjects.

The K-12 is already there, but how it will be implemented and its effects remain to be seen.