K to 12: The effect on teachers

CEBU, Philippines - When the K to 12 program was first brought up, those who  opposed it raised concerns on the additional burden to parents  and students. However, now that K to 12 is in the initial stages of implementation, another issue has cropped up – it’s effect on teachers.

The transition from the 10-year Basic Education program to the 12 years of the K to 12 program is also critical to teachers as these professionals will also need to upgrade their skills so they will not be left behind when the program is fully implemented come 2016. For schools to be able to shift to the K to 12 program, administrators have to make adjustments to the movement of faculty, as well as resources.

Understanding K to 12

Republic Act No. 10533, also known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, first discussed in October 5, 2010, was signed into law in May 15, 2013 and took effect June 8 last year.

The K to 12 program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education – six years of primary education, four years of Junior High School and two years of  Senior High School – to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills, develop lifelong learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills development, employment and entrepreneurship.

The Senior High School level comprises two years of specialized upper secondary education wherein students may choose a specialization based on aptitude, interests, and school capacity.

Once they reach senior high, students are made to choose among four tracks such as academic, technical-vocational-livelihood, sports, and arts and design. 

Students who finish Grade 10 obtain Certificates of Competency or a National Certificate Level I (NC I). Those who finish a Technical-Vocational-Livelihood track in Grade 12 may obtain a National Certificate Level II (NC II) if they pass the competence-based assessment of  TESDA.

Coping with the shift

Local stakeholders foresee that with the K to 12 educational system in full swing two years from now, there will be 1.1 million and 400,000 junior high school students from the public and private schools, respectively.

However, this would mean that there will be no college freshmen for school year (SY) 2016-2017 and SY 2017-2018, and no second year college enrolees for SY 2017-2018 and SY 2018-2019.While there will already be college freshmen in 2018, there will be no third year college students for SY 2018-2019 and SY 2019-2020, and no fourth year college enrolees for SY 2019-2020 and SY 2020-2021.

The flow of students in the four years of tertiary education is seen to be normalized come 2021 but there will be no college graduates for SY 2021-2022.

The absence of students in some college levels for the next five academic years is the reason why school administrators raised certain concerns, such as the effect on the number and employability of faculty members in the tertiary or college level.

University of San Carlos Vice President for Academic Affairs Fr. Anthony Salas, SVD. MM, said that managing the impact of the educational reform on the faculty would be the biggest challenge for colleges and universities, pointing out that the employment of the faculty personnel is directly related to the academic programs being offered.

The General Education Curriculum in the college level will be revised and may lead to fewer units with the removal of unnecessary remediation since K to 12 graduates have undertaken the basic education curriculum required in College Readiness Standards. With the new system, the tertiary level will now comprise of a year of General Education subjects and at least two years of major subjects.

Salas said that they are already looking at those degree programs that will not survive and should be closed years from now.

These programs, he added, are those that only have few enrollees such as the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Bachelor of Science in Physics that only have 50 students for the four year levels but only produce around five graduates.

“But we have to offer them because the country needs professionals from these programs,” he said.

He said that they have yet to set criteria for assessing the academic programs that they would continue to offer in accordance to fulfilling the vision and mission of the university.

He, however, said that the possibility that some academic programs will be closed may lead to another possibility that the school shall offer new ones.

“For instance, if we talk about library studies. We do not only study books but also focus on archiving with the use of computer database. By then, it becomes attuned with the needs of the market,” he said.

USC has around 400 part-time and full-time faculty members for the tertiary education. Most of its part-time instructors are teaching general education courses such as English, Filipino and Mathematics.

The Department of Education said that more teachers are being hired to fill the necessary gaps in schools for the SY 2016-2017 onwards for basic education.

University of San Jose – Recoletos Vice President for Religious Affairs Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Bolilia, OAR, said that the university is not thinking of the possible retrenchment of some of their faculty but since basic education will need to hire more teachers to handle the senior high program, they are thinking of letting some of their college instructors teach in secondary education.

He added that the university may even hire more teachers for the senior high program since there are some faculty members who are retiring in 2016 and 2017.  He said they are working hard on mitigating the effects of the K to 12 transition on the university’s employees.

“Our first concentration would be on our faculty. We believe in our workforce,” he said, adding that the Catholic community-oriented educational institution that USJ-R has been known of would prioritize creating a working environment that would be beneficial to all.

For colleges that will have no freshmen enrollees for the academic years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, USJ-R is planning on assigning Grade 11 to 12 subjects to qualified professors from the college level.

USJ-R will devote the whole SY 2014-2015 for the preparation of the school for the K to 12 transition while the entire SY 2015-2016 will be intended to simulate themselves on how they will operate come 2016.

Teachers who are qualified to teach in specialized subjects in the elementary and secondary education under the K to 12 are those who graduated in science, mathematics, statistics, engineering, music and other degree courses and are passers of the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).

If universities have to hire non-LET passers because of a shortage in applicants, those hired must take and pass the LET within five years after their date of hiring. Part-time instructors are not required to have a LET license.

For the specialized subjects in the secondary education, technical-vocational teachers should be graduates of technical-vocational courses and should possess the necessary certification from TESDA. They should also undergo training from DepEd or a Higher Education Institution (HEI).

Those faculty from HEIs will be allowed to teach in the general education or subject specialties in the secondary education given that they must be a holder of a relevant Bachelor’s degree and must have satisfactorily served as a full-time HEI faculty.

The DepEd and private education institutions may also hire practitioners who have expertise in the specialized learning areas offered by the Basic Education Curriculum to teach in the secondary level, provided that they teach on a part-time basis only.

USC basic education department director Fr. Felino Javines Jr., SVD, DM also said with the available laboratories and facilities USC has, the tertiary education can shoulder a segment of the senior high program.

He said that the university shall encourage its faculty members in the basic education to pursue further studies and earn national certificates from TESDA to be qualified in the senior high program.

He added that teachers need to prepare themselves to handle both skills-based and academic subjects since the K to 12 transition shall actually entail a competition among qualified teachers who are competent to handle the basic and tertiary education.

USC already started retooling their faculty personnel since 2011. Its basic education department has around 400 teachers.

“We call it succession planning. Our teachers are lined up for training and further studies so in time, they will be ready to deliver,” Javines said.

After the retooling stage, he said that they will identify the respective faculty members to be assigned in the different areas of the enhanced basic education program.

While college administrators are concerned more on how many will remain and how many will go, he said that the basic education administrators primarily focus on how many students they can handle and how many programs they can accommodate in the senior high program.

By law, the schools are obliged to find alternative measures for its full-time and tenured faculty members, unlike with their part-time instructors.

For those faculty members who will not qualify, the school may opt not to renew their contract with probationary and part-time instructors.

Salas said that there would also come a time when they will not hire part-time teachers anymore while some full-time instructors will be transferred to basic education.

“The programs that will survive will now be critical to the faculty that will run the program,” he added.  

Once they have identified the academic programs that would be continued to offer, he said that USC shall identify who are the instructors to be retained, to be retooled and to be offered with early retirement.

While for the tenured faculty, the school may re-classify them to administrative or academic support positions, assign faculty to do research for two years, payroll employment for two years, put them in floating status that would last usually for six months.

 Otherwise, the school can have them on sabbatical leave wherein they can work elsewhere for two years.

As much as they would want to retain all of their college teachers, Salas said that they still have to evaluate them if they pass on the qualifications required by the Commission on Higher Education.

He added that since there will be fewer students enrolling in the tertiary education, those faculty members who want to stay in the university should be able to do research for the university.

USC has 280 of its college faculty doing research, to which they allot a budget of P80,000 for research per instructor.

While Salas still cannot estimate how many teachers will be retained in the tertiary education, he was sure that those who will stay shall have additional workload.

By January next year, USC shall begin to assess the preparedness of its teachers for the K to 12 program and will start the retooling stage by June 2015.

Earlier, USC has been in the papers for reportedly terminating the services of all its employees in the General Services Office. Fifteen of those who were let go staged a strike last May 20.  

He admitted that the closure of the said office is considered as a cost-cutting measure of the school in implementing the K to 12 program.

“What happened was we had more support staff than our faculty members. It is inefficient. We have to save since we don’t want not having any reserves in time when we will not have any freshmen enrollees in 2016 to 2017,” he said.

 For now, the university avails of on-call services from support-related establishments.

Salas further clarified that USC shall continue looking for qualified teachers and keep their existing faculty members as of now amid the projected freeze hiring come 2016.  

“It would be very delimiting for a university to stop hiring since we still have to look for the best. For now, universities will continue to hire because it will be at their stake not to hire those who are really qualified,” he said.

Meanwhile, USC has created a roadmap on how to manage the impact of K to 12 specifically on the management of its existing resources.

Salas admitted that while USC stands for its moral commitment to its faculty, the university could not assure that all of their current faculty will still be on board by 2016.

“Definitely, we have to bite the bullet. Let’s admit it. There will be teachers who will be displaced especially for those who have been in their comfort zone for a long time,” he said. — /QSB  (FREEMAN)