K-12 Education System: Boon or Bane?

This article is our editorial in our campus paper project in Campus Journalism subject. I worked collaboratively with the editorial staff in our group to come up with this.

The K-12 Education Program or DepEd’s proposal of extending the 10-years of basic education program of the country is perhaps one the most drastic and controversial programs on the Aquino administration.

Such program aims to add two more years to the country’s educational system, making it 12. This proposal will supposed to be effective on the start of the school year  2012-2013 for Grade 1 pupils and first year high school students. It has a target to be fully implemented by SY 2018-2019.

Now, the question is: Is this K-12 model effective or good to Philippine education and to the Filipino families as well?

DepEd argues that this program will be a help in giving solution to the deterioration of the quality of Philippine education. However, some critics said that instead that this program will address the need of the country for educated and literate citizens, it worsens the situation. If K-12 will be realized, the government should have look after the  state of the common Filipino people which are mostly earning meager wages, not even enough to send a child to school. And to unemployed parents, this would be another burden and agony in their pockets.

The dire need of the country for educated youth doesn't mean that we need to add more years in education. DepEd should try to check what is wrong on the curriculum, administration, transparency and accountability of the officials assigned to supervise the department, and development of teaching materials essential in advancing the quality of learning of the students.

As long as the aforementioned reasons are not addressed to and remain unattended by the officials in the higher ranks, the worsening of the country’s education system will remain a problem. All efforts will be gone to waste.

Thus, either 10 years or 12 years could make much difference if there is proper implementation and carrying out of the goals of the country to produce literate, skilled, and competitive citizens.