Immersion in tech-voc

The key to understanding the Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (TVL) Track of Senior High School is studying the Curriculum Guides posted on the website of the Department of Education (DepEd).

If you click on Agri-Fishery Arts, for example, you will get figures such as this: Aquaculture (640 hours), Food/Fish Processing (640 hours), and Horticulture (640 hours).

If you click on Home Economics, you will get figures such as Caregiving (640 hours), Cookery (320 hours), and Front Office Services (160 hours). You will also get this note about these three particular skills sets: “40 hours of the subject during exploratory Grade 7/8.”

If you click on Information and Communications Technology, you will get figures such as Animation (320 hours), Computer Programming (320 hours), and Contact Center Services (320 hours). You might also be surprised that Computer Programming allows the learners to gain a National Certificate (NC) IV. Most people who talk about Senior High School (SHS) say that high school graduates can have, at most, an NC II.

Finally, if you click on Industrial Arts, you will get figures such as Automotive Servicing (640 hours), Domestic Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Servicing (640 hours), and Plumbing (320 hours for NC I and 320 hours for NC II).

DepEd conducted a survey of the preferences of current Grade 10 learners, in order to be able to plan what tracks to offer in each particular SHS. The findings confirm the gut feel of the original proponents of K to 12.

Almost half or 49.5% of Grade 11 learners (roughly 607,000 learners) in June 2016 will take the Academic Track, with 92,000 (7.4%) taking STEM, 111,000 (9.1%) taking ABM, 92,000 (7.5%) taking HUMSS, and 310,000 (25.4%) taking GA. (STEM means Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics; ABM means Accountancy, Business, Management; HUMSS means Humanities, Social Sciences; GA means General Academic).

Only 0.8% of Grade 11 learners (roughly 10,000) will take the Arts and Design Track. Another 0.8% (9,700) will take the Sports Track.

Almost half or 48.9% (597,000) will take the TVL Track. I do not have the figures for the specific TVL Strands (or specializations), but half a million learners doing Tech-Voc in SHS is a lot of learners.

Learners taking the Agri-Fishery Arts Strand will have to attain skills such as “sample and analyze the soil for water holding capacity,” “read the tidal level,” and “set up aerators.” It is very difficult, if not impossible, for a SHS to be near enough to the coast for learners to stay on campus and be able to read the tidal level. I use this example to show how ridiculous it is for learners not to get out of the classroom. The same constraint, however, clearly applies to many of the particular skills (all on the DepEd website) required of all learners in this Strand.

Graduates with an NC II in Caregiving are expected to be able to take care of a patient. It is not only very difficult but actually impossible to attain that high level of skill using only your classmates as your simulated patients. It is, therefore, necessary for the learners to go someplace where there are real patients needing care.

Learners working for an NC IV in Computer Programming clearly must have programmed something, not a textbook problem, but a real programming problem with a real enterprise. TESDA is very clear on what is necessary for an NC IV. (Go to the TESDA website and click on Computer Programming.) One of the skills or Training Regulations is “Gain/Obtain feedback/input from appropriate person as needed.” No matter how smart a classroom teacher is, s/he cannot possibly give feedback on all the computer needs of all business enterprises.

Finally, to learn how to service automobiles, learners clearly need to have automobiles to work with. It is hard to imagine a public SHS having enough space and money to house several automobiles.

The solution, needless to say, is immersion. TVL learners have to spend time in actual workplaces to gain the skills they need to be certified (gain NCs).

There are fishing companies (or more likely, coastal families) that can give learners practice in reading tidal levels and other skills necessary for Agri-Fishery Arts. There are clinics or hospitals that can give learners actual experience in handling patients. There are all kinds of companies that need computer programs to help them become more efficient. There are numerous automobile repair shops that can teach learners how, for example (this skill is in the DepEd website), to “check and adjust ignition timing as per service manual.”

Where will the almost 600,000 SHS learners learn the Tech-Voc skills that they want and need? Where will they get the hands-on experience that will enable them to pass the tests or assessments that TESDA will require for the NCs?

The answer is: in workplaces.

Immersion in the TVL track, therefore, needs a lot of hours (a lot more than the 80 hours allotted for the Academic Track) for K to 12 to fulfill its promise that graduates will be able to get jobs after high school.

(To be continued)