Let’s push the K to 12 program

Education, along with healthcare and infrastructure, is probably one of the most important and fundamental things a government can provide for its people. The right to decent education and the ability to find opportunities to learn is something that everyone wants for themselves and for their children. After all, in many instances, a proper education and a degree is what many have used to build a better life.

So it doesn’t surprise me that when it comes to education, everyone is more sensitive and more careful about what they say and do. After all, whatever happens in our educational system will inadvertently affect all of us. Personally, I am for the Department of Education’s program of adding two more years to high school in 2016 despite the objection of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to suspend its implementation until some basic problems are resolved.

I admit that I do understand his concerns. There have been problems in the educational system for years before K to 12 even became an issue. However, it’s also important that we don’t use these issues and problems as a crutch and not be able to move forward and make improvements. The K to 12 school system helps us better adhere to international standards and that gives future generations even more options than before.

At the end of the day, the way our world is working now, I believe that we have to give ourselves as many chances to be as globally competitive as possible. The world is getting smaller by the day and we have to look at the Philippines with a more worldwide view. Other ASEAN countries are, after all, competing globally when it comes to education, so why shouldn’t we?

In fact, I believe I mentioned in a previous piece that it was a pity that we are behind in development as compared to our Asian neighbors. After all, we have so many great investment opportunities and chances to make it big on an international level with a plethora of skills and talents, not to mention our ability to communicate and speak English. If we could just address problems such as traffic and infrastructure, government corruption, and high cost of energy, there would be little to stop us from making our presence felt worldwide. Granted, these are not small feats and will most certainly take time and effort, but they can be done.

And of course, along with all that, we would have to begin adhering to international standards as well, such as those of the educational systems around the world. The K to 12 program would be a step in that direction. According to the DepEd, the new program makes kindergarten mandatory and adds two years of senior high school to the country’s basic education system in line with international standards.

However, these changes are, of course not without their own set of concerns. While the K to 12 system makes primary and secondary education stronger, it presents several problems for the tertiary education system. Since the K to 12 system hopes to provide students with a good basic educational background enough to get them decent jobs when they graduate, colleges are facing the prospect of fewer and fewer enrollees as the years go by.

This is a bonus for the many underprivileged students who may not be able to afford to go to or complete their college education. At least with this setup, they may still be able to find decent jobs with their primary and secondary educational achievements. Overall, this will truly help those who were, before, hindered from employment for lack of a college degree.

However, the downside to this is that colleges and tertiary education programs will most definitely experience the pinch of losing enrollees as the years go by. As early as now, college educators are feeling the pressure of possibly having to look for new jobs with lower pay grades when colleges eventually downsize, something they will have to do should their number of enrollees drastically decline.

While this is very unfortunate for college educators who went through so much to be able to teach higher education, overall I still think the benefits of K to 12 outweigh the downside. After all, we have to look at our population as a whole. So many parents can’t afford to send their children to college and feel that they have relegated them to having fewer opportunities than the children who do go. With the K to 12 system in place, these children, who may not have the opportunity to go to college, still have choices.

Admittedly, there are several challenges ahead for this program and I don’t argue with Sen. Trillanes that it is ambitious, but I don’t think that just because something is hard doesn’t mean it can’t and shouldn’t be done. If we wait until we iron out all the issues in the educational system before making this change, then let’s face it, we’ll never do it. Perhaps if we take the first steps to major change then resolving our other problems will naturally follow.

After all, I fear we can’t afford to tread slowly anymore, our population is rising at an alarming rate and if we don’t change the way things are done we are going to fall under our own weight. Just last week we welcomed the birth of the baby that brought our population to 100 million. While life is always a cause to celebrate, the problem remains that we have to be able to find a decent quality of life for every baby that is born. A task that is by no means easy.

Education is definitely one way to do that, but it is not enough. Despite economic growth in recent years, almost 40 million Filipinos still live below the poverty line and equitable growth for everyone in the country is a problem that continues to elude the government. As I mentioned in a previous column, all the “growth” of the Philippines is for naught if only a miniscule portion of the population gets to enjoy it. We have to find ways to bridge the divide between the rich and the poor.

Alongside educational improvements and more equal opportunity employment, the RH law is also something that can hopefully make a change in the future of our country. With the green light from the SC the only thing that remains is effective implementation. With the 100 millionth baby having just been born and several more to follow there is no time to waste.