Ten Reasons Why K to 12 Program Should Be Suspended

[Chalk Talk, the official newsletter of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Davao Region, published in its May 2015 special issue the ten grounds for a national call to suspend the government's K to 12 (Kindergarten to proposed two-year senior high school) program. Following is the Unity Statement of Suspend K to 12 Alliance! which ACT is one of the convenors. -- ED.]

1. The government is not prepared to implement a 12-year Basic Education Cycle as manifested by the actual insufficiency of facilities, instructional materials and education sector personnel in the old 10-year Basic Education Cycle.

2. The government's actual education budget never reached 4% of the GDP, while the global standard is pegged at 6% of the GDP, hence, the program will be underfunded.

3. The almost simultaneous implementation of three big educational reforms -- Mother-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in the primary level, the creation of a two-year senior HS in the secondary level and the introduction of a trimmed down new General Education Curriculum (GEM) at the tertiary level - is very problematic and prone to ineffective and inefficient implementation as the government's limited resources and personnel will be very stretched.

4. As proven by subpar National Achievement Test (NAT) results in recent years, the over-all quality of education in the country is bad and stagnant if not declining, thus, to improve the quality of education, the government must prioritize the facilities and teacher training, and increasing the salaries of personnel, from the measly Php23,044 (Instruction 1 in SCUs), Php18,549 (Teacher 1 in DepEd schools), Php9,000 (entry-level salary of non-teaching staff) to Php26,878' Php25,000; and Php16,000, respectively, considering that a Philippine Military Academy (PMA) cadet's monthly salary is Php27,425.

5. The enactment of CHED Memo #20, s. 2013 which has trimmed down the college GEC Curriculum, cascading subjects from the college to Senior HS, has led to the removal of vital subjects such as Filipino, Literature, and Philippine Government and Constitution.

6. Many courses such as Housekeeping, Caregiving, Medical Transcription and Contact Center Services in the Senior HS curriculum are shockingly suitable only to overseas jobs, beneficial only to foreign businesses, thus the K to 12 Program has no nationalist orientation, contrary to Art. XIV, Sec. 2 & 3 of the Philippine Constitution.

7. Generally, the anti-tertiary education mantra of the K to 12 program will manufacture young and docile laborers with low-paying, contractual jobs at a time when even many college graduates are unable to find good jobs.

8. The K to 12 program is prelude to the planned merging of the SCUs under the Roadmap for Public Higher Education Reform (RPHER) which may result to the possible reduction of the number of SUCs, LUCs, and even the closure of small private colleges and universities, thus, the massive displacement of around 100,100 professors, non-teaching staffs by 2016; and beyond, once the slimmer GEC has become permanent, this scheme will also lead to the massive contractualization, thereby weakening if not busting unions.

9. Considering that more that 20M Filipinos are poor as per official government statistics, adding two more years in HS will certainly be financially burdensome for many families, hence it is an indirect assault to our people's right to education.

10. There was no genuinely democratic consultation will all stakeholders, no nationwide assessment of the old BEC, hence the sudden shift is all the more whimsical, baseless.

SUSPEND THE K TO 12 PROGRAM!
RESOLVE CURRENT PROBLEMS AND DEFICIENCIES FIRST!
CONDUCT MASSIVE DEMOCRATIC CONSULTATIONS WITH STAKEHOLDERS!ALLOT AT LEAST 6% OF THE GDP FOR THE EDUCATION SECTOR!
WORK FOR A NATIONALIST, SCIENTIFIC AND FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL!