INTRODUCTION

PHILIPPINE EDUCATION: K to 12 Program

A Research Paper Presented to

Mr. Dustin Celestino of the English Resource Center

Asia Pacific College

Magallanes, Makati

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Course

Research Writing

Dan Allen Pamonag

October 2012

OUTLINE

TOPIC OUTLINE

• Philippine Education
• Philippine Education: K to 12 Program
• Philippine Education: K to 12 Program vs 10 years Education Program

 I.            INTRODUCTION

        A.      Background of the study

        B.      Statement of the problem

        C.      Significance of the study

        D.      Scope and limitations

        E.       Methodology

        F.       Definition of terms

 II.            DISCUSSION

       A.      What is "K to 12 program"?

       B.      Disadvantages of k to 12 Program

       C.      Advantages of k to 12 Program

       D.      What is the "10 year Education Program"?
       E.     Disadvantages of k to 12 Program
       F.    Advantages of k to 12 Program

   

III.            SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

IV.            REFERENCES

K to 12 VS TESDA

On my 1st year here in manila, I saw this building "TESDA" on my way to the school. And I ask my parents "What is it?" and my parents replied that it was school that enhancing your vocational skills. Today, K-to-12 is already implementing to the Philippines, I was wondering if TESDA will compete to this educational program. Because TESDA can give job for how many months only after graduating in high school than going to college with 3-5 years. Then, I do my research.

Based on the Inquirer, there is this article named “TESDA head says k+12 Program won’t affect agency” made by the Cebu Daily News. In this article, Joey Villanueva, TESDA Secretary Genral, said that TESDA would not be affected by the k to 12 program because they still have the authority to give competency certificates to those who completed vocational courses in TESDA.

Employers in our country and especially overseas, require submission of certificates that serves as a proof of their competence in certain skills and fields. That this kind of certificate TESDA can provide.

Mr. Villanueva clarify that TESDA wasn’t competing to schools/colleges/universities. TESDA was giving an option to people choose their possible career paths in the agency.

TESDA is not competing with the DepEd program. The agency only offers courses that will enrich your skills that will applicable on some jobs. In k to 12 program, it included vocational skills. That’s way there is a issue that k to 12 program will affect the TESDA agency.

Mother Tongue it is!

An article of GMA Network named “K to12: Lessons to be taught in mother tongue to help students learn better and stay in school” by Richelle Sy-Kho. In that article, Mother tongue- based Multi-lingual education (MTB-MLE) is the main topic. The k to 12 program will be using the MTB-MLE from kindergarten to Grade 3 in both public and private schools.

Yolanda Quijano , DepEd Undersecretary, said that this kind of teaching will help the students easily understand the lesson and fill the sense of the children with sense of nationalism. Students taught in their native language learn better than foreign languages based on studies.

English and Filipino are still required even if there is a multi-language education. Another reason why this multi-language is part of the k to 12 program is to improve the comprehension skill of a student and mostly to reduce the drop outs rate of students.

That article by Richell Sy-Kho she emphasize to MTB-MLE which is the positive side of the k to 12 program. This MTB-MLE is the first step of the k to 12 program in order that the student will be ready going to the next level.

Academic Attraction in some countries

The NewsFlavor has this article “Why Foreign Students are Invading Philippines Schools” by Success Kanayo Uchime. The writer based on the report of the Agence France-Presee (AFP) report that the factors why foreign students enrolled to the Philippine Schools are schools are affordable and it has high-quality offered courses that conducted in English and an average Filipino students have an easy-going lifestyle outside the class.

Mr. Uchime said that manila schools are conducting in some countries that’s why some foreign people have knowledge that Philippines have an affordable and high-quality courses. Philippines use an English language which is the second language that is used in the country. The author believes that Philippines doesn’t have disadvantage on getting a job in the US. And he also stated that Philippines is making the country as the academic attraction in the Asia.

This article is like an advertisement that those foreign students which are having a financial problem regarding to their school in their country have a choice to enroll to the Philippines which it offers affordable and high quality courses, and conducting a English language inside the class.

I conclude to this post that Philippines don’t have a poor quality education unlike what other articles said. So, having a K to 12 system implemented to the country makes the Philippines more attractable in academics for foreign students because the education system in some countries will be similar to ours.

Collaboration leads Innovation

One day, I was watching this news about the filipino inventor who sells his invention to other country because our government didn't want to buy his invention. I realized that we filipino can do some invention like other country does. And also

In the ABS-CBN News, the article “Philippine education ranked 'poor'” was published by Max V. de Leon of Business Mirror. On the article of Mr. de Leon, he quoted first what Guillermo M. Luz, co-chairman of National Competitiveness Council (NCC) said that “The Philippines ranks a poor seventh among nine Southeast Asian nations in the area of education and innovation”. A result from Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum shows that the Philippines didn't make at least the top 50 out of the 138 economies at any area in primary education. 99th out of 138 economies was the ranking of the Philippines. The Philippines is 69th in educational system, 112th in science and mathematics, and 76th on the Internet access. In other categories, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are ahead to Philippines.

Luz had a proposal “Greater collaboration on strategic plans and processes for industry and government for tighter cohesion.” He believes that if the universities and industries collaborate there will be an innovation or discoveries occur and the budget for other matters will be reduced. He also wanted that to minimize the number of colleges/universities in the country and to rationalize the system. He believes that there will be a few but better universities.

The article by Mr. de Leon tries to tell the readers that even if the Philippines ranked 8th in the Southeast Asia in the fields of education, science and mathematics, and innovation. The country only needs to collaboration of universities and industry for us to rank up to the statistics in education, science and mathematics, and innovation. I believe in this article collaboration of the two would be a bright idea it’s like a give and take. One will benefit from the other and vice versa.


I realized in this article that Philippines should help each other. The idea of collaboration of universities and industries will make big differences. Schools, universities and colleges would have funds for their needs on what they lack because there would be industry sector to support them. And Industries would have new discoveries that the universities contributed to them that will lead the country for innovation. If this happens I think the Kto 12 system would not be needed in the country.

disadvantages of K to12?

Some filipino disagrees to the "k-to-12" program. Some doesn't want this program to be implemented in the country. May be the view point of this people is the negative side that's way the don't agree to this program. And I wonder what are their reason why they don't want this program to be implemented. And I go to my laptop then surf the net. I found many articles, but one caught my attention.

From the OMMSTER website, I found this article K+12 Education System: Not A Good Idea, For Now by Sherica Fabienne Ocbanbia. The writer is obviously disapproved the k to 12 education system. She said that the k to 12 would be a bad idea in our country as of today. In the article she explained her reasons why k to 12 is a bad idea to our country. She pointed out 5 reasons why it is a bad idea, those are:

· Poverty
· Teacher’s Training and Interest
· Student’s Interest To Study
· Private Schools Will Benefit…On the Business Side
· F for Facilities

First in Poverty, she exaggerated the word “this” in her statement “THIS is the most glaring issue here and THIS is the most popular reason”. Most Filipinos are having a financial difficulty, especially on their budget on their primary needs for their own family. Some parents or guardians work hard just to send their kids to school and to have a quality education because quality education is hard to obtain for young member of the family.

Teacher’s training and interest, teachers today are complaining for a low rate salary. K to 12 will increase their task or work. If this happens there would be a probability that teacher would seek for another job than to do a lot of work with a low paying job.

Student’s Interest to study, we are introduced with the new technology today and most children are addicted to computer games and stuff. Cellphones, music player, laptop and other gadgets will lead students more interested in it than to study. The writer said “Some students even don’t make their assignments on their own, and they “bully” or “pay” the smartest in their class by letting them do it. Some even cram to the max level days before the deadline of submission.” And she also observed that some students find learning disinteresting for the reason they don’t like the subject or the teacher. So, students tend not to listen but they do other things.

Private Schools Will Benefit…On the Business Side, schools today increases their tuition fees, especially the miscellaneous fees. Under miscellaneous fees some fees added which are not advisable are included.

Lastly F for Facilities, she graded our educational facilities as F because some schools today especially the public schools have really poor quality in their facilities.


There are a lot of problems in the Philippine education that we should care about for long term solutions. She wants to point out that we should restore the quality of education before we implement the k to 12 system.

Ms. Ocbanbia was right about her blog. But her point of view was the negative side of implementing the k to 12. I think that additional funds are needed for the solution to all of the reason why it is a bad idea, except for the “Student’s Interest to Study”. This “Student’s Interest to Study” is a parental concern. Parents should talk to their children on motivating them to study and others.

I conclude, in order that the k to 12 would be ready in the Philippines. Government should give additional funds regarding to Philippine education to help schools to have better services and facilities. And Parents should be always there for their children if their children need them.

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.

It's called "k to 12"

One day, I was at the mall then I heard a parent having a conversation with his child. They were talking about this "k+12". The parent was talking about that it has been implemented this year and his child will be under that "k+12". His child argues that it is not "k+12", "daddy, it's k-to-12" the child said. So, when I got home from the mall. I was curious about it what the real name of it.

After I did my research in the internet, the child in the mall was right. I found out that it is called "k-to-12" not "k+12". I found this article in Manila bulletin. I think many people are confuse what it will be called. So, they made this article for the people know what should be it called.


Manila bulletin has this article “DepEd: It’s ‘K to 12’” by Ina Hernando-Malipot. In this article, the DepEd want to clarify that the new educational system is called “K to 12” not k+12, k-12 nor k12. They want to clarify that not all features of k to 12 are new. They explain that “k+12” may confuse people that it’s only 12 years not a sum of 13 years. For “k-12” that some people will understand this as K minus 12. They explain the k to 12 program that the kindergarten will be compulsory to all before they enter six years of elementary, then a four years of junior high school, the additional two years of senior high school that a total 13 years.

The committees of the k to 12 program are from members of DepED, Commission and Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). These committees are responsible for the information on the proposed model not only highlighting the basic education but designing the curriculum also. They focuses on the basic education but they focuses more on the curriculum using the spiral and ladderized approach for better progress from one level to another.

This article clarifies us that the educational system is called “k to 12” only, and no other names for us to avoid confusions and misinterpretation. It also clarifies us that it is not all about adding two more years for basic education but also to designed curriculum for better progress from one level to another. This article is useful for those people who are not clear what the k to 12 is.

I conclude that people need to have knowledge to the k to 12 program before they give judgment on it. They made this program implemented not just to add years but for the benefit also of the students ready in college.

Exercise 1: Formal Language

"And an important thing that Mr. Grohol said that "Don't forget to learn!". I think he said that because most of the students study just to pass the subject. When you study, you should understand it by heart, it's okay that you forget the exact words but you know the thought of it."

"An important statement that Mr. Grohol made is "Don't forget to learn!" this statement was made maybe because most of the student today study in order to pass the subject. Studying is acquiring knowledge. It is not memorizing a thousand of words."