CHED clarifies who can go to college despite K-12

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) yesterday clarified who can enrol in college despite the full implementation of the K-12 program, which added two years to the country’s basic education curriculum.

CHED K-12 transition program director Karol Mark Yee said students may be accepted as college freshman for academic years (AY) 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 if they graduated from high school before 2016, or from a high school that was identified as an early adopter of the K-12 program.

“In accordance with law, junior high school completers in AY 2015-2016 must be promoted to Grade 11 in senior high school in AY 2016-2017 and, thus, cannot proceed directly to freshman year in colleges and universities,” he said.

“There will still be freshman entrants in AY 2016-2017 and AY 2017-2018, which the Commission, in close coordination with the Department of Education (DepEd), has allowed but only for the two categories of students,” Yee added.

Several higher education institutions still enjoy a relatively high freshman enrolment this year due to returnees, or those who graduated from high school before 2016, but did not immediately proceed to college.

The commission also instituted the transition program to support faculty and staff who will be displaced because of the expected drop in the number of students due to the implementation of the senior high school program.

CHED alloted billions for scholarships and other grant opportunities to cushion the impact of the education reform program.

Meanwhile, Federation of Associations of Private Schools and Administrators president Eleazardo Kasilag yesterday clarified that their request for DepEd to allow Grade 10 students to march was only for the recognition of their efforts.

Kasilag earlier urged DepEd to allow schools without senior high schools to let the students “march” and provide them with official certificates that will certify their completion of junior high school.

In the current set-up, a simple move-up ceremony is held to signify the completion of junior high school.

With the high school diploma set to be issued only completing Grade 12, Kasilag said students who finished Grade 10 do not receive any official certification of what they have achieved.