Year 2012 marked an important
change on the Philippine educational and
academic landscape. Responding to the
current administration’s goal of improving
the quality of education and to keep pace
with the global standards, Department of
Education (DepEd) under the leadership of
Bro. Armin Luistro initialized the implementation
of the K12 program.
The K12 extends the four years of
the basic education curriculum in order to
provide and equip students of additional
edge and skills beneficial in preparing for
college. Because of prevalent factors such as
poverty and increasing expenses for college
education, youth is unable to enter college
and the difficulty of ushering future seems
obvious.
Ideally when K12 system is introduced,
high school students will be more equipped
upon graduation as the curriculum intends
to focus honing their skills in both conceptual
and practical areas of learning.
Several trainings have been considered
nationwide for teachers and educators for
those who are going to teach grade 7 to
12. These were facilitated by professional
educators from the collegiate levels.
Currently, the effect of K12 to college schools
will imminently be visible starting 2016. DLSUD’s College of Education Dean, Emmanuel
Camarse, mentioned in an interview that
retrenchment is the last option the institution
would consider if decline in the number of
student population.
And
to
avoid
this circumstance, the administrators of
the university are planning to add a basic
education department.
Moreover, Dr. Camarse said that
Private-Public partnership is one option;
second option is to make sure that every
cent in the funds is spent wisely through
having enough number of students in a
class and last, professors are taking their
education units in Graduate Schools.
Dr. Luis Carmelo Buenaventura of Social
Sciences Department said that K12 is very
good for the entire educational system
as it provides for the reform of an existing
educational structure that has been there
since time immemorial. For the student, it
provides more time for them to mature
and grow as future professionals. They
are not being rushed into finishing school
and other educational requirements just
so they would earn a degree. K12 allows
for more quality educational time and
sets a higher standard for all present and
future students to become more mature,
especially on the tertiary or collegiate
levels.
The only setback today, is that
K12 places more financial demands on
both students and parents since they
(the parents) have to pay and invest
more. For the faculty, they will have to
undertake further training especially for
those on the secondary or high school
levels.
15