TVET and basic education

As a candidate for the presidency, Noynoy Aquino promised to do ten specific actions to radically transform education in the Philippines. As President, he has achieved at least four of these ten, namely (quoting his own words):

“I will expand the basic education cycle, from a 10-year cycle to a globally-comparable 12 years, for our public school children.” (Note, by the way, that the K to 12 reform primarily targets public school, not private school, children.)

“All public school children will have preschool as their introduction to formal schooling by 2016, and we will make this available to all children regardless of income.” (The Kindergarten Education Act or RA 10157 was passed in 2012 and implemented that year.)

“We should become a trilingual nation. Learn English well and connect to the world. Learn Filipino well and connect to our country. Retain your mother tongue and connect with your heritage.” (Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education is now mandated by the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 or RA 10533.)

“I will reintroduce technical-vocational education in our public high schools to better link schooling to local industry needs and employment. We need to provide an educational alternative to better prepare the students for the world of work.”

The last promise is also now a reality. Making full use of Secretary Armin Luistro’s extraordinary organizational and negotiation skills, Aquino has made the Department of Education (DepEd) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) work together on a curriculum that is both academic and vocational. In order to ensure that the academic part corresponds to the College Readiness Standards previously mandated by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Luistro created task forces consisting not only of DepEd experts, but also of experts from TESDA, CHED, and various other entities concerned with education. One of these groups was a Sub-Technical Working Group on Senior High School (which I co-chaired with Luistro, a fact I now disclose for transparency).

For convenience, let us call technical-vocational education TVET (the international acronym for Technical and Vocational Education and Training), a term that TESDA uses.

In the K to 12 curriculum, students get a National Certificate Level I from TESDA before they reach Grade 11.

What is a National Certificate?

Allow me to quote from TESDA’s website (tesda.gov.ph):

“The Philippine TVET Qualification and Certification System (PTQCS) is a quality-assured structure used for giving recognition to the attainment of competencies (knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values) along the middle-level skilled occupations. It is the process of determining the qualification level of a person and giving recognition to the attainment of competencies in that particular level.

“TESDA implements assessment and certification for all qualifications with promulgated Training Regulations.

“A Training Regulation defines the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values required for competent performance in the workplace.

“A National Certificate (NC) is issued when a candidate has demonstrated competence in all units of competency that comprised a Qualification. The NC is valid for five (5) years.”

Clearly, the NC is aimed at giving its holder the paper requirement needed to find a job or (in the case of NCs on entrepreneurship) to establish a business. The Training Regulations are formulated with industry practitioners, thus ensuring no mismatch between training outcomes and employment needs.

In other words, when a student has an NC, s/he has a good chance of getting an income, either from a company or by himself or herself.

In the K to 12 curriculum, students in Grades 7 and 8 are given the chance to explore various fields that require NCs. In Grades 9 and 10, students actually earn NCs through courses offered by DepEd in conjunction with TESDA.

Here are some skills that can earn an NC Level I for a student: agricultural crops production, automotive servicing, consumer electronics servicing, plumbing, refrigeration and air-conditioning servicing, and shielded metal arc welding. Obviously, the TVET courses offered in a particular school depend on the location and capability of the school. (The curriculums for these skills are on the DepEd website.)

In general, but not for all cases, one needs to take an NC Level II and sometimes even higher on top of the NC I. With an NC I, a person “can perform routine and predictable tasks, has little judgment, and works under supervision.” With an NC II, a person “can perform a prescribed range of functions involving known routines and procedures, has limited choice and complexity of functions, and has little accountability.” With an NC III, a person “can perform a wide range of skills, works with complexity and chaos, contributes to problem solving and work processes, and shows responsibility for self and others.” With an NC IV, a person “can perform a wide range of applications, has responsibilities that are complex and nonroutine, provides some leadership and guidance for others, performs evaluation and analysis of work practices and the development of new criteria and procedures.”

Needless to say, more complex skills already need college education. NCs guarantee that persons have middle-level skills, not higher-level skills.

When they enter Grade 11, therefore, students already have enough employable skills for low-level jobs (NC I). How does Senior High School (SHS) add to these skills? (To be continued)