P-Noy’s K-12 plan must first overcome BEC deficiencies

While the new DepEd Secretary, Brother Luistro is getting acquainted with UNESCO during the ongoing Autumn Executive Board meeting in Paris, former DepEd undersecretary to Brother Andrew, Isagani Cruz was tasked to inform the media and the public how President Noy Aquino’s K-12 education plan would work out. Expecting an avalanche of arguments to follow, a series of consultations regarding the conversion of the existing 10-year program (six elementary school years and four years secondary education) is supposed to take place.

The most prominent opposition comes from Ateneo de Manila University president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres and former chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Education, who insisted that the current 10-year Basic Education plan must be made relevant first, to meet the UN Millennium Development Goal for quality education before DepEd adds two more years to it.

BEC timetables in prosperous countries lead to voc-tech

The “K” in K-12 stands for Kindergarten, while 12 signifies twelve years which President Noy has decided as the timeframe to match Philippine Basic Education to international standards, so that the Filipino youth would ultimately be employable. By the time America bequeathed independence to the Philippines in 1946, the Department of Education became acquainted and attached to the US educational system during 70 years of American governance. Our public school system was developed first with the help of 800 American school teachers, the Thomasites, who were assigned all over the Philippines. Many of them even gave their lives as they succumbed to tropical diseases. American missionaries too, reinforced the new system of learning as far as the remote Mountain Province.

There was barely any opportunity to get acquainted with other school systems practiced in advanced countries in Europe, Canada or Australia.

As early as 1964 when I received Italian study grants (borsa di studio) to master the Montessori system from pre-school to professional high school, I was privileged to observe the school systems in Italy, England, and Denmark. Between 1966 to 1986, while training teachers in all levels of the O.B. Montessori Center, Mr. Soliven and I would travel together on invitation of various governments to Spain, France, Germany, Australia and Japan. Usually I would request to observe their basic educational system up to their vocational schools.

Preschoolers in Italy, England, France and Germany attended school between the ages of three to six years. Between six to 11 years old, they take up five years of elementary schooling.

In general, European high schools last six to seven years, starting with lower secondary (junior high school), higher secondary (senior high school), and one final year to get a professional diploma eligible for well paid technical job. In Germany, on the last year in an academic high school (Gymnasium), the student must pass the abitur to get to a university. These professional skills are provided in the so called Community College in the US.

In Italy, 11- to 14-year-olds are in the “scuola media” (junior); the 14- to 18-year-olds are in the “scuola superiore” (senior). To get licensed, an extra year course for diploma is taken between 18 to 19 years. It’s similar to France. The French senior high school or Lycee for 15 to 18 years old, is also known as “baccalaureate professional”. It has four streams: scientifique, economique, litteraire and technological.

In Germany, the 10- to 15-year-old goes to high school, Haupstschule or Realschule. Between 16 to 19 years, students may take up vocational course in a “Berufsfachschule”. For immigrants, the local language is first learned whether Italian, French, German or English to be eligible to take up any vocational course.

The partnership of voc tech schools and business corporations

At the Royal Denmark Zoo Restaurant, Ana, a 16-year-old Filipina whose mother re-married a Danish airline personnel, dons her red apron everyday after school to serve as a waitress at one of the restaurants of the famous Tivoli Gardens of Copenhagen. She is one of the many apprentice high school students of Copenhagen. Her 15-year-old brother chose to work at a furniture store. Both of them earn enough to buy their basic needs as students.

Ricardo, a Filipino-French student of the well known state-supported Ecole Hotelier of Paris has chosen the short basic two-year course of bartending in this technical school whose graduates are readily employed as bakers, chefs and bartenders in the bistros and restaurants of Paris. The school welcomes them back after two- to three-year experience to do the advanced course of management.

Tino is a Filipino high school student in Den Hague, Netherlands. While visiting his school, I saw the carpentry workroom filled neatly with different kinds of saws, pliers, hammers, and lathes, which later would be the same tools he would use as a professional carpenter in Holland. These Dutch, Italian and German high schools like other European secondary schools have a total of six years within which students have a choice of specialization in the last two years in several technical training programs. These include food technology, butchery, bakery, agronomy, electronics, plumbing, welding, etc. In Germany and Denmark, state laws provide apprenticeship experiences in business establishments for these manual trades.

The first Australians had to clear up the numerous forests to set up the first towns and villages. The British crown sent brides for the British convicts they sent here as the first settlers. Rural schools which taught agronomy provided practical education for their children. To this day such schools are still existing like the Royal High School Academy of Melbourne, the Rural Agricultural High School of Adelaide and Saul’s Farm school in Sydney. Here, high school boys and girls learn the poultry business and animal husbandry, winning awards in sheep fleecing competition. During the World’s Fair at Tsukuba, in the suburb of Tokyo, senior high school boys and girls in workers’ uniform attend to the shitake mushroom farm in the conifer forest where hundreds of shiny shitake are growing on the fallen pine tree trunks. In another section of the huge estate, I watched the horticulture teacher show the students how he would only keep one flower out of a dozen growing on a vine to produce the priceless Japanese melon.

A challenge to our corporate businessmen to develop quality workmanship

Would our businessmen and industrialists help revolutionize the working force of the country? Do they have the heart and therefore care for the people on whom they depend for business? If they do, must not only provide the material needs, but also the learning opportunities for young adults. –Preciosa S. Soliven (The Philippine Star)