Budget woes beset K+12 program

The Philippines is ill-prepared to embark on the ideal 12-year basic education curriculum, at least for now, lawmakers eyeing the money problem say. The Enhanced K+12 program will add two years of senior high school to the current system and will be implemented beginning school year 2016 to 2017.

Education Secretary Brother Armin Luistro has explained all the arguments in favor of this reform.

But lack of funds has moved lawmakers in the House of Representatives to call for it to be scrapped as early as now—even if the program’s full implementation is scheduled six years from now.

ACT Teachers: Against

The ACT Teachers party-list congressman cited that based on the proposed P207.27-billion budget for Education in 2011, and the school-age population of 22.71 million persons, aged 6 to 15, entering public schools, the government spending for basic education per student per day, in real value, is only P24.97.

Also, the education sector’s share has dwindled from 3.3 percent in 2001, 2.19 percent in 2008 to 2.7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009. Such GDP share pales in comparison to the Philippines’ neighboring countries namely Malaysia (7.4 percent) and Thailand (4 percent). The said figure is also lower than the 4 percent average for all countries that were included in the World Education Indicators in 2006 because the minimum prescribed standard for education spending set by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) is 6 percent of a country’s GDP.

“We cannot even provide enough funding for the education sector. We would need P149 billion in 2011 alone to address shortage of classrooms, teachers and textbooks and that the hiring of 10,000 teachers every year is likewise not enough to keep up with the rapidly growing population and student number,” Rep. Antonio Tinio of ACT party-list pointed out.

“I can’t see this problem being addressed in the next few years,” Tinio added.

Therefore, he questions the wisdom of spending on adding two more years in basic education.

“The government should instead come up with a solution on how to increase the number of Filipino students finishing high school, considering that only 43 out of 100 children who enter Grade 1 become high school graduates. If this [K+12] pushes through, only few students would benefit from it because more than 50 percent of our students cannot even finish high school,” Tinio pointed out.

Agham party-list

For Rep. Angelo Palmones of Agham party-list, the K+12 program will fail not only because of the country’s lack of facilities, but also because of the worsening purchasing power of poor families.

While public education is free, the Kabataan party-list representative computation revealed that a student would still need an average of P20,000 a school year to cover transportation costs, food, school supplies and other operational expenses while attending school. For its part, the Philippine government allotted a meager 2,502 a year, or P6.85 a student a day, for education.

”The problem is, the K+12 program is not holistic. Yes, you add two more years to school years, but they don’t have a program that will improve the economic well being of the families. In such a situation, the children will still be deprived of education because their parents cannot send them to school,” Palmones told The Manila Times.

Ejercito and Pacquiao: Against

These views were shared by Rep. Juan Victor Ejercito of the Lone District of San Juan and Rep. Manny Pacquiao of the Lone District of Saranggani.

”I am more for the increase in budget of SUCs [state universities and colleges]. One graduate in a family means a better chance to uplift their living conditions. Adding two more years in elementary might mean lesser chance to finish college,” Ejercito said.

“We need billion of pesos needed to implement K+12. It would be better to use budget two improve the quality of education and public schools,” Pacquiao added.

Contrary to the claims of K+12 program critics, Secretary Luistro stressed that the new strategy would also include efforts to address the problems of lack of classrooms, textbooks, teachers and other facilities.
Implementation will also be phased so that improvements will be steady.

TUCP’s Democrito Mendoza

Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) party-list, however, is not convinced.

The practical effect of the K+12, Democrito said, is to discourage the parents coming from the basic sectors of realizing their dream of graduating their children as employable professionals and to instead seek advancement through the vocational and technical (voctech) education route.

“While voctech education is equally noble and compelling as of itself, the choice that a student makes of what to pursue should be a matter of choice and not social engineering. Soon, the only students who will opt for higher education will be the rich and the upper middle class,” Democrito said.

Pro K+12 lawmakers

But not all lawmakers are painting a grim future for the K+12 program.

Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya of the First District of Cavite, Rep. Miro Quimbo of the Second District Marikina and Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy of Bagong Henerasyon party-list believe that the K+12 initiative is sound and doable.

Abaya, the chairman of House Committee on Appropriations, gave the assurance that the Education department will get the lion’s share of the national budget to pave the way for the full implementation of the K+12 program.

“It is a constitutional provision. This government believes that education is the best investment where people’s money should go. I completely believe in it, I am convinced of its merits. It can be done by 2016,” Abaya said.

Herrera-Dy, for her part, expressed confidence that the K+12 program is feasible with the help of the private schools.

“We have a good six years to implement the program. It is not a question of convenience. Rather, it’s a matter of necessity,” Quimbo added. –LLANESCA T. PANTI REPORTER, Manila Times