Luistro bares benefits high school students will derive from K+12 program

Education Secretary Armin Luistro yesterday clarified the Department of Education’s (DepEd’s) proposed K+12 program will give high school students a chance to work or gain immediate work experience.

“We envision an on-the-job training as early as grades 11 and 12,” Luistro said, referring to the last two years of high school in the proposed K+12 program.

Luistro said the program will teach high school students specialized skills, such as creating and implementing business plans, selling products, and even doing journalism.

The Education chief explained the program aims for holistic development that is “outcomes-based” to make Filipino high school graduates employable.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, on the other hand, questioned how the program makes the curriculum “overcrowded” by including subjects such as journalism.

“Journalism? We love good journalists but why journalism in particular?” Angara said, chairman of the Senate committee on education, arts and culture.

Luistro, however, clarified that such specialized subjects will be offered as electives.

Meanwhile, a number of public school teachers have criticized the program, saying it will be ineffective if it fails to address the real issues on the field.

“We’ve been experiencing shortages in classrooms, schoolbuildings, teachers, textbooks and other needs and every year the government is burdened with the backlogs of the previous year. This is primarily due to low investment in public education,” he said.

Meanwhile, another private school, the Trinity University of Asia (formerly Trinity College) also vowed to support the K+12 program.

“We looked at the K to 12 as an opportunity to improve the education of Filipinos in general as well as their employable skills which we are already doing here. We are fully supportive of this program,” said the university’s registrar Iluminada Castigador at a press briefing yesterday.

Castigador said even before the K to 12 program came out in the open, Trinity was already upgrading its curriculum to enhance the skills of their students.

“The K to 12 program would further improve the country’s academic standing through a much more enhanced delivery of quality education,” she added.

Earlier, the 9,995-strong Federation of Associations of Private Schools and Administrators (FAPSA) had said the group is ready to junk the K to 12 education program if its implementation would only impede their operation.

Elizardo Kasilag, FAPSA president, stressed the rejection will only come to play if the program will only serve as a setback in the operations of private schools, such that it would entail increase in tuition.

He added for FAPSA the 10-year basic education system is still working fine in the private education sector since they follow the international standards set for education like the classroom student ratio, teachers training, management standards, among other things.

He said FAPSA would adopt a wait-and-see attitude and observe how the program would be implemented and how it would affect private schools and the private education sector as a whole. Jason Faustino, Daily Tribune