Senior High School Is Not Going Anywhere, And An Education Advocate Explains Why It's Here To Stay

[Lee]

Quote

 

You might have read the news about senior high school being discontinued in some schools—particularly in state universities and colleges (SUCs), as well as local universities and colleges (LUCs).

Whether you have kids who entered school when the K-12 curriculum was introduced in 2013, or you are like me, a millennial parent who hopes that the education system reverts back to the 6 years elementary and 4 years high school education when our kids finally enter school, then this news is significant to all of us.

There has been misleading information about the discontinuance of K-12 that made some parents worry whether their Grade 10 or Grade 11 kids will be displaced next school year. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) clarifies that they didn't abolish the senior high school program in the country; rather, they merely reminded SUCs and LUCs to discontinue the program in the institutions within their scope because the K-12 transition period has ended and they no longer have a legal basis to continue accepting SHS students in the next school year.

The implementation of K-12 will continue under the Department of Education, as it has been enacted under Republic Act No. 10533, also known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.

Education advocate Ramon del Rosario, Jr., who is the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) founding chairman and PHINMA Corporation chief executive officer, explains why K-12 is here to stay.

In an interview with One News PH last November 2023, Del Rosario maintains that the K-12 curriculum is the way to go if the Philippines want to raise globally competitive learners, "There is consensus among education experts that you need 12 years to reach the college level, both in terms of the content that you have to absorb, but [sic] in terms of the level of your maturity."

He added, there have been very significant efforts through PBEd to improve the employability of the graduates of the senior high school program, especially in identifying the competencies that the students need to get more of, enhancing the content in schools, and strengthening the curriculum.

Del Rosario stresses, the problem with the Philippine education system is not entirely related to K-12, but traces back to a mother and child's nutrition.

"The basic problem with Filipino education starts with the basics. The kids don't learn how to read and write, and that's not the problem of adding two years."

He added, "It's really from the very beginning, and it starts even before they go to school. Nutrition. Malnutrition. This issue of stunting is not a small thing. Up to 30 percent of our kids have brains that do not develop properly because the kids do not have the right kind of nutrition in their infancy."

Del Rosario emphasized the importance of addressing the mother and child's health and well-being, especially during the first 1,000 days.

He admits, there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the implementation of K-12. However, reverting back to 10 years rather than 12 years, he says, is "a major step backward."

"The idea of increasing the basic education period to 12 years, part of it was to decongest the learning experience because there were too many things being thrown into the kids that they were having difficulty learning the basic things well."

The idea was to focus on the basics, he said. "But when the two extra years were added, there is a penchant to keep throwing additional things that people think kids should learn."

He believes that the solution to improve K-12 implementation in the country is to have the Second Congressional Commission on Education, or what he refers to as the Education Commission, to look at this whole system in a holistic manner and come up with an integrated solution to all the problems of our education system.

He also recommends better communication and coordination between the three education bodies: DepEd, CHED, and TESDA.

 

Senior High School Is Not Going Anywhere, And An Education Advocate Explains Why It's Here To Stay (msn.com)

[Mike J]

3 hours ago, Lee said:

"The idea of increasing the basic education period to 12 years, part of it was to decongest the learning experience because there were too many things being thrown into the kids that they were having difficulty learning the basic things well."

The idea was to focus on the basics, he said. "But when the two extra years were added, there is a penchant to keep throwing additional things that people think kids should learn."

 Refreshing to see that Mr. Del Rosario sees the real issue and is making some noise.  Adding two years of crap education to 10 years of crap education results in a K-12 crap education.   I hope those who can make changes will listen to his advice. 

Edited January 11 by Mike J

[Lee1154]

It does not matter if they go from 12 to 14 years or 16 years, they seem to never attend class full time.  The article mentions not knowing how to read.  No text books brought home by my step-daughter and no school library or public library available.  How are they suppose to learn to read with no exposure to books?  Now that they have been exposed to books, both of my children love them.

[hk blues]

Again, again, again.

There is a vast chasm between Public and Private schools in terms of education standard, resources etc etc. Anyone not exposed in any way to the education system here could be forgiven for thinking it's way worse than it is in reality FOR MANY which is hardly good for the already poor PR the country has. 

I'm all for telling it like it his here, but let's tell it like it is. 

 

[Lee]

41 minutes ago, hk blues said:

There is a vast chasm between Public and Private schools in terms of education standard, resources etc etc. Anyone not exposed in any way to the education system here could be forgiven for thinking it's way worse than it is in reality

I would suggest that overall the education system in the PI, both public and private, are all bad. 

The problems are too big and multifaceted to be fixed by finger pointing politicians or DepEd buck passing managers.

IMO its going to take an outside entity to fix this mess.

[hk blues]

4 hours ago, Lee said:

I would suggest that overall the education system in the PI, both public and private, are all bad. 

The problems are too big and multifaceted to be fixed by finger pointing politicians or DepEd buck passing managers.

IMO its going to take an outside entity to fix this mess.

Bad is relative though.  

ETA - The likelihood of any outside entity being allowed to get involved in anything important here is as near zero as anything can be so it's futile to even consider that as a possible solution. And that assumes they actually want to fix the problem which has to be doubted.  

Edited January 12 by hk blues

[Avalon]

Since we opened People Offshore last year I've had to interview around 70 to 80 candidates and then hire just on 20 staff.  Most of these work as Admin Assistants for our clients, small to medium sized businesses in Australia (70%) and the UK (30%) only.  They perform a wide range of support tasks, some voice but mainly desktop office work or online web site / social media promotions and customer support.  We've found the best fit so far has been fresh college grads from a 4 year course either from Holy Cross College here in Concepcion, or Tarlac State University in Tarlac City.  Those with prior BPO / call centre experience tend to come with an over-inflated opinion of their accrued skills and attitude issues.

On the plus side we find that 4 year fresh grads come with a good level of written and spoken English, but also importantly, a demonstrated ability to start something and see it to a successful conclusion.  They're almost always strong in MS Word (useful) and MS Powerpoint (useless) but poor in MS Excel which nearly every client has a requirement for so they need to learn up on that, which isn't hard. 

Specific skills to their course are almost non-existent - and we're hiring a lot of Magna cum Laudes and Dean's Listers - not ones who just scraped through.  For example we had a client requirement for general office tasks and also adding expenses into Xero online accounting.  Two candidates had a 4 year B.Sc in Business Admin Majoring in Finance and so I asked what online accounting software they had used.  Neither had used any?  I asked if they could read a Balance Sheet, only to find they had one 2 hour seminar on company financials in 4 years but didn't recall much of it.  So how can it be "Majoring in Finance"?

The content of the courses they do is poor - but they come with good English, a good work ethic and attitude - and we can teach the rest.

 

[craftbeerlover]

I am so tired of even thinking about the "education" system here.   My wife and I have been talking about it ad nauseam lately as we will soon be sending our child into the Philippines "education" system.   We are concerned and we know we are going to be busy parents.   As I have already stated, we have relatives in this fn school system now, and I have put kids thru school here (a private school).   Are the private schools better?  Most are just slightly better and then there are the very few private schools here where kids actually do get an education.   Those private schools are out of my price range.   The majority of the private schools, while better than the public schools, still SUCK in comparison to the western world and the rest of Asia.  I could provide numerous first hand anecdotes, but that is just stating things you already know or encountered.   I do have friends that have attended and sent their children those private schools that I cannot afford, and they and their children are well educated.  If I could afford it, I would pack us up yesterday and take us out of here, but unfortunately I cannot do that.  I will vent periodically for some type of cathartic release and we will do the best we can. 

[Mike J]

19 hours ago, hk blues said:

Again, again, again.

There is a vast chasm between Public and Private schools in terms of education standard, resources etc etc. Anyone not exposed in any way to the education system here could be forgiven for thinking it's way worse than it is in reality FOR MANY which is hardly good for the already poor PR the country has. 

I'm all for telling it like it his here, but let's tell it like it is. 

 

The system as a whole is terrible.  You are correct that a handful of private schools do a good job of educating kids.  The reality is that very few Filipinos can afford those schools.  Prior to the pandemic I tutored three "honor" students at a local private school.  They were in grade 8 and 9 at the time.  All three could read English but their comprehension rate was virtually nonexistent.   While I enjoyed their company, I found the "teaching" portion of our time together kind of depressing.  I think their spoken English skills did improve but I can't say the same about their reading comprehension.  You are fortunate to be able to send your children to good private schools.  Unfortunately those schools are out reach for probably 98 percent of the population. 

Curious and will not be offended if you choose not answer.  What is the tuition, and grade levels, at the schools where you send your children?

[hk blues]

4 hours ago, Mike J said:

The system as a whole is terrible.  You are correct that a handful of private schools do a good job of educating kids.  The reality is that very few Filipinos can afford those schools.  Prior to the pandemic I tutored three "honor" students at a local private school.  They were in grade 8 and 9 at the time.  All three could read English but their comprehension rate was virtually nonexistent.   While I enjoyed their company, I found the "teaching" portion of our time together kind of depressing.  I think their spoken English skills did improve but I can't say the same about their reading comprehension.  You are fortunate to be able to send your children to good private schools.  Unfortunately those schools are out reach for probably 98 percent of the population. 

Curious and will not be offended if you choose not answer.  What is the tuition, and grade levels, at the schools where you send your children?

No problem -

My son is in Grade 6, going into Grade 7 next school year.  The Fees are in the region of about 75kphp a year, including books, PE Kit etc etc.  I do not consider this particularly expensive or that he attends an elite school. Satisfactory, yes.  I won't comment on whether the number is affordable to many as that's not my call.  

If I think back to my Grade 6 days, it seems that in general some subjects are more advanced here i.e. Maths and Science and some less so i.e. English and Geography.  I would say the level overall is broadly similar but perhaps I went to a poor school (not perhaps, I did) and my son goes to an above-average school (probably true).

For the avoidance of doubt - I am in no way suggesting the education system here is good but there are pockets of satisfactory schools.  That doesn't help the majority of kids here and I'm well aware of that.