Big business group backs K+12 proposal

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) group has welcomed the government’s plan to adopt the “K+12” proposal which integrates kindergarten and two additional years to basic education in the country.

In a statement, PBEd said the “K+12” educational system would benefit the poor.

K+12 gives to the masses the extra years of schooling that for many years has only been available in private elite education institutions, the group said. Studies have shown that every additional year of schooling improves the income potential of a student as he enters the world of work, it added.

PBEd, an advocacy group for educational reform led by prominent businessmen, said the additional years in basic education cannot be separated from the issue of the school system’s poor quality.

“Forcing into 10 years a curriculum that is learned by the rest of the world in 12 has resulted in poor performance by our students,” the advocacy group said in a statement.

“This, over and above the poor quality and lack of teachers, textbooks and workbooks and facilities, continues to make learning a growing challenge for more and more of our students.”

PBEd called on the various education sector stakeholders to rally around the K+12 effort. “It shall be no easy task and it shall most certainly make the necessary reforms even more complex, requiring even larger investments,” the group said.

“However, K+12 coupled with other system-wide reforms like those under the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA) are essential if we want our children to learn to learn and learn to achieve.”

With K+12, businesses would be able to open their doors to the hiring of high school graduates as is the practice in almost all other countries in the rest of the world, it added.

“Those who insist on throwing obstacles in the way of K+12 are condemning our kids to poverty and sabotaging their opportunities for a better life,” PBEd said.

Fr. Edwin Corros of the Catholic bishops’ Episcopal Commission on Migrant and Itinerant People, however, Wednesday said two more years in school would cause more problems to Filipino parents, particularly those working abroad.

“The present education system is already hard for them, what more if they will add more years in the basic education,” said Corros Wednesday.

“That’s an additional burden to the OFWs,” he said in remarks posted on the CBCP News, the official news service of the Church hierarchy.

Corros said he understood that the Department of Education’s K+12 program was aimed at beefing up the country’s basic education to keep up with rest of the world, but its impact on OFWs “would not be good.” –Daxim Lucas, Philippine Daily Inquirer with a report by Jocelyn Uy