K to 12 in Numbers

No, we will no longer emphasize the fact that around 100,000 workers (teachers and non-teaching staff) will be displaced by K to 12. Anyway, similar crimes happen every day in this pseudo-Christian country where workers are treated like disposable diapers. Yes, the government gave that pro-labor Pope Francis a red-carpet welcome but that doesn’t mean that the country will subscribe to the Church’s social justice doctrines. In fact, government trolls, big businessmen, bureaucrats, middle-class social climbers, the nouveau riche, and similar elements seem to speak for the whole country when they say WHO CARES ABOUT 100,000 WORKERS? NO PAIN, NO GAIN! LET THE WORKERS STARVE, WE NEED TO BE GLOBALLY-COMPETITIVE! (And in fact, they’re not joking: global hunger is rising, hence, they probably think we should also hike the number of hungry people here by creating a new curriculum that will fire at least 100,000 workers). But there are other statistics on K to 12 which may warrant every reader’s attention. HENCE, THIS PAPER WILL LET OTHER NUMBERS SPEAK.

Thanks to the endeavors of the Alyansa ng Mga Tagapagtanggol ng Wikang Filipino/TANGGOL WIKA (Alliance of Defenders of the Filipino Language), a broad number of people are already aware that under K to 12, Filipino, Literature, and Philippine Government and Constitution subjects were abolished. But, few citizens know that K to 12 also abolished Philippine History subject in junior high school, and the said subject is not also included in the senior high school curriculum.Ironically, heritage conservationists and historians have succeeded in popularizing their opposition to Torre de Manila’s “photobombing” of Jose Rizal’s Luneta monument, while very few such figures have spoken about the abolition of Philippine History in high school. Finally, one wonders how the sitting president can quote George Santayana in his SONA 2015 while allowing the abolition of Philippine History in high school.

This is very problematic because of the spiral approach incorporated in subjects such as Mathematics and Science. Such approach involves the lumping of various fields such as General Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics in every year level in high school. Take note that there are separate Bachelor in Secondary Education degrees for such fields, hence five days would certainly be not enough to adequately train teachers to teach using the spiral approach.

Contrary to Malacanang’s claims, various groups from all shades of the political spectrum are against the implementation of K to 12.Union officers affiliated with the Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (COTESCUP) filed the first anti-K to 12 petition. The second K to 12-related petition was spearheaded by TANGGOL WIKA. The Supreme Court granted an indefinite temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Commission on Higher Education Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 20, Series of 2013 that abolished Filipino, Literature and other vital college subjects. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV – an Aquino administration ally – and two Magdalo Partylist representatives filed the third K to 12-related petition. The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) prepared the fourth K to 12-related petition which was uniquely filed on behalf of children who will be affected by the said scheme in the future. Meanwhile, the fifth – and possibly most comprehensive – petition was filed by the Suspend K to 12 Alliance, the Makabayan Bloc in Congress, Parents’ Movement Against K to 12 (PMAK) and other groups. Parents and teachers of Manila Science High School filed the sixth and seventh anti-K to 12 petitions. After the sixth petition was filed, the Supreme Court ordered the consolidation of all six K to 12-related cases. The seventh petition distinctively emphasizes the pleading that current junior high school students be allowed to take college entrance tests so that they may eventually enroll in college instead of undergoing senior high school come 2016.

Cuba, a K to 12-compliant and self-described socialist country, is praised by UNESCO for being the only Latin American nation to meet Education For All (EFA) goals. With regard to public expenditure on education, Cuba is second only to Lesotho, another K to 12-compliant nation where 13% of the GDP is allotted to the education sector. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the education budget has never breached 4% of the GDP in recent decades – way below the 6% which is the global standard set by UNESCO. No wonder almost all Supreme Court petitions against K to 12 point out the obvious: the Philippines is ill-prepared for any curricular change as it lacks the budget required for any such endeavor.

Suprisingly, even DepEd officials admit that the reality in a number of public schools is far from ideal, just like in Cebu City where the class size in some schools is 50. In the National Capital Region, some schools have split standard classrooms into cramped makeshift classrooms. Meanwhile, students from state colleges and universities such as Bulacan State University complain that class size in some subjects reach 70. It is evident that contrary to the government’s claim, lack of classrooms and teachers still hounds the Philippine public education system. Adding two more years of high school at this point will certainly aggravate such problems.

That means most high school students failed the NAT! The mean percentage score for elementary students is 68.88 – definitely higher than the high school average score but still a failing mark. One wonders why the country will add two more years into the level of education which clearly is the weakest segment. Data was culled from the Philippines’ “Education For All 2015 National Review” which admitted that the country failed to achieve some Education For All (EFA) goals. That the government failed to achieve EFA goals under the old 10-year Basic Education Cyclereflects the strong possibility that K to 12 will also miserably fail to address problems on the quality of education.

As per the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI) Report 2014, there are actually 70 countries poorer than our republic. Only two of those 70 countries (Angola and Djibouti) are non-K to 12 countries. The HDI is considered as a comprehensive measure of development as it covers data on income, educational attainment, and health. One may not necessarily agree with the exiled Philippine communist leader Jose Maria Sison’s politics, but he is right to point out that “many countries have been on K-12 for decades yet remain grossly underdeveloped and fare even worse than the Philippines on educational indicators.” It is clear that our country needs more than just superficial educational reforms to achieve genuine economic development. Photo credit: school class in Kuito, Angola, by Rafaela Printes, http://www.zoriah.net/

The amount is equivalent to P18,809, which, interestingly, is incidentally just slightly higher than the entry-level salary for public elementary and junior high school teachers (P18,549). The Universal Employment Agency is “is a leading professional consultancy that specialises in the placement of foreign domestic helpers mainly from Philippines and Indonesia.” Thriftier Singaporeans can go to shopping malls if they want cheaper rates, according to an Al Jazeera report. There are 70,000 Filipino domestic helpers in Singapore according to official Philippine government estimates, on top of hundreds of thousands more in other developed countries. The K to 12 Program intends to churn out tens of thousands of domestic helpers via the related technical-vocational-livelihood (TVL) tracks in senior high school. As emphasized in the Suspend K to 12 Alliance’s Supreme Court petition, K to 12 is just “…the continuation of the 30-year old Labor Export Policy, as proven by senior high school courses aligned with foreign needs such as Caregiving, Food and Beverage Services, Housekeeping, Household Services, Welding, and Slaughtering Operation.”

While this is slightly higher than the entry-level salary of elementary and junior high school teachers, the amount is way below the average salary of professors in the National Capital Region (around P31,915 based on statistics culled from the “Penultimate Report of the Inter-Agency Technical Working Group of the Department of Education, Department of Labor and the Technical Skills and Development Authority” dated 30 April 2015) and the entry-level salary of a PMA cadet (P27,425). It is thus not surprising that there are few takers of the sitting president’s suggested “option” for professors to transfer to senior high schools.

Unfortunately, such amount won’t be enough to cover even just the annual tuition fees in many private schools that offer senior high school such as the Technological Institute of the Philippines, where annual tuition fee amounts to P30,000 – P35,000 pesos; Informatics, where annual tuition fee amounts to P70,000 pesos; STI, where annual tuition fee amounts to P32,500; New Era University, where annual tuition fee amounts to P30,000; National College of Business and Arts, where annual tuition fee amounts to P25,000 – P30,000 pesos; and APEC Schools, where annual tuition fee (with textbooks, as per their claim) amounts to P24,850 pesos. With the exception of APEC Schools, the abovementioned rates are on top of miscellaneous fees, textbook fee, school service, and other expenses which will not be covered by the government subsidy. Thus, anti-K to 12 parents are correct in describing the two-year senior high school as an additional burden.

That’s what DepEd said in its “K to 12 Basic Education Program Midterm Report” dated May 5, 2015. DepEd admits that public senior schools cannot accommodate all public junior high school students. Parents of these students will have to shoulder the expenses beyond the measly subsidy provided by the government.