Would k to 12 helps to a smarter Filipino?

In the article by Manila Times, I found this article K-to-12: Twelve years to a smarter Filipino? Written by Ricardo Saludo and her colleague contributed to this article named Pia Rufino. This article contains that the first batch of Kindergarten-to-12th (k to 12) was implemented to the country. Ricardo explains that “Grade 1 pupils will be taught in their mother tongues, and high school freshmen will be given technical and vocational courses. And they will all take two years longer to complete secondary school, the first batch under the K-to-12 Grade basic education program launched last month. And as a proven boost to school learning, pre-schoolers nationwide will go through a year of kindergarten.”

Before k to 12 was implemented to the country, the only one in Asia and one of the remaining three countries (with Djibouti and Angola) that had a 10-year basic education cycle was the Philippines. In which other countries have 13-14 years of basic education.

There was a study named “Length of School Cycle and the ‘Quality’ of Education” was conducted in 2010 by retired UP Professor and former Deputy Minister of Education Abraham Felipe and Fund for Assistance to Private Education Executive Director Carolina Porio. In this study it said that “there is no correlation between the length of the school cycle and the quality of education.” And “longer education cycles do not necessarily result in better international math and science test scored.” The study also noted that some countries which have shorter cycle obtain the highest scores compare to other who implemented K to 12 got lower scores than the Philippines.

Senator Trillanes IV cited the report in Senate Resolution 499 that the Senate Committee on Education and other related committees to review k+12. He said when Philippines adapt k to 12 system it will be a “big, costly and potentially disastrous” experiment that worsen the problems of the education sector.

The article also highlighted the country lacks hundreds of thousands of classroom and teachers, millions of books and seats, and P150 billion for basic education. With k+12 implementing to the country, the DepEd needs an estimated P88 billion to provide new classrooms, chairs, books, teachers, maintenance and other operating expenses, and for the mandatory kindergarten.

Senator Edgardo J. Angara said that k to 12 is in need of more comprehensive reforms like: “improving the curriculum, enhancing teacher training and addressing infrastructure gaps quickly and sustainably.” He was also disappointed regarding to the figures in the article of National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) that college graduates from 10 years increased for only 3 percent a year average. And college students took science education, teacher training, engineering and technology declined form 31.3 percent to 22 percent. Angara stresses, “While K to 12 is in itself significant, it is only one step among the many that we as a country will need to undertake.”

Regarding to this article by Ricardo Saludo, the writer conclude that “it will take more than 12 years to make the Filipino smarter.” Maybe it will take more than 12 years or maybe not. Some agrees that k to 12 should implemented and some are not .Maybe we should look first on what we lack regarding to our education like classroom, teachers, school and more before we implement k+12. And we should analyze and study very well the needs and consequences of k to 12 before we implement it.

We can not tell what k to 12 will do for us Filipinos. There will be disadvantages to this educational cycle and also there will be advantages. We should not only rely on the new educational system but we should do our part for it to have less failure and more success.