K-12 and skills mismatch

This March, we will not have any high school graduations. You see, we’ve thrown out of the window the old high school concept which most of us adults have know and experienced.

When the 2013 Enhanced Basic Education Act was signed into law, the term for high school was extended to six years, with the first four years now known as junior high school (JHS), and the next two being called senior high school (SHS).

The batch of those who finished four years of high school this year will have to look forward to doing two more high school years before they can become eligible for higher studies in colleges, universities or even vocational schools.

These additional senior years are also supposed to make those who eventually graduate to be better prepared for the job market, especially if they choose not to pursue the next level of higher education.

SHS will have track subjects that are supposed to develop skills for immediate employment or entrepreneurship, and core subjects for college readiness.

Career tracks

Students will also undergo four career tracks: academic, technical-vocational-livelihood, sports, and art and design. This, together with a better understanding of the needs of the community and industry, is supposed to help them decide what direction they would want to take after graduation.

Overall, the track curriculum is supposed to enhance the value and relevance of the high school diploma, alongside the learning that will come from the core curriculum, which is really the basic preparatory education for entering tertiary level education.

Because the SHS curriculum will also confer TESDA national certificates, graduates are supposed to be more confident at finding decent entry-level jobs right after graduation. They also will have skills needed to earn money for a college education if they are financially challenged.

Preparations

Of course, all these intentions sound good on paper, since we will know only if things are moving according to the intent of law two years hence when the first SHS graduates say goodbye to their high school alma mater.

The Department of Education (DepEd) has undoubtedly been busy preparing for the first batch of SHS students. At least 20,000 new classrooms as well as around 40,000 education personnel are supposedly needed for this, and the DepEd is confident they will be able to competently cope.

Still, it seems like a tall order especially since the classrooms will need teachers who will be adept at teaching a new curriculum. The DepEd says it will employ some 25,000 college teachers and personnel laid off because of the K-12 program, but an additional15,000 new positions still need to be filled up.

The deployment logistics alone would require some top-notch management skills. And we’re not even talking about having the right quality of the teachers and non-teaching personnel who will provide the learning basics of the new SHS students.

If it’s any consolation, given the “dry-run” experience this coming school year for the first batch of SHS students, the second batch should have it better – although of course there will still be the logistical need for at least 20,000 more classrooms and another 45,000 academic personnel and teachers.

Making it work

Just as with any new undertaking, there will be hiccups along the way – and this requires not just our patience and understanding, but even our help in any way possible.

At least, we can now say the Philippines is already at par with the educational system of the rest of the world, now that we have truly expanded our basic education to 12 years after kindergarten.

The big challenge, therefore, is making K-12 work correctly and efficiently so it delivers what it meant to. Definitely, we need to make sure our graduates, year after year, will be able to find the jobs they prepared for.

Skills mismatch

We cannot afford to send to the labor force more half-baked graduates have to take on jobs that are either not according to what they trained for, or are sorely lacking in the necessary skills.

With the Philippine economy growing, more new jobs will be created. The government, therefore, should pay attention to ensuring that schools, including the senior high schools, will produce students who will be able to immediately find employment when they graduate.

Better coordination among the stakeholders of the academe and industry should be fostered to ensure that not just 10 percent, according to a study conducted by local human resources conglomerate Servicio Filipino Inc., of graduates are able to find jobs.

It doesn’t make sense for Filipinos to spend so much for an education, only to painfully realize that the years they spent in school are not enough to give them a job, not just one that matches what they trained for, but not even commensurate enough to what they spent in school.

In the one-day conference organized by the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) in Cebu last year, this problem about job mismatches had been tackled, but with no definitive follow-up.

Focus on finding solutions

More than ever, the government needs to draw up a mechanism to plot the needs of industries in the medium- and long-term, and to coordinate the programs of schools to turn out the right caliber of graduates.

Similarly, local governments should be tapped to adopt job-matching programs that could guide students in their senior high school levels, especially those who do not have not immediate plans of pursuing tertiary education.

We should stop wasting the precious money of parents spent on securing an education for their children. We should feel ashamed that diligent students who invested their time and youth on securing a good education will be forced to just accept any job so that they can just earn some money.

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