Kabataan asks gov’t to stop K-12 after CHED bared its ‘defects’

by Pathricia Ann V. Roxas, Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 9, 2019

MANILA, Philippines — Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago filed Thursday a resolution that urges the Duterte administration to review and stop the K-12 program after Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chair Prospero de Vera III admitted defects like the stalled implementation of projects and non-provision of salary for project-based researchers.

“We have said time and again that the K to 12 program will not answer the country’s declining quality of education,” Elago said in a statement after filing House Resolution No. 2557.

“Kung mayroon mang nagawa ang K to 12, ito ay pag-eksperimentuhan, pagkakitaan, pahirapan at paasahin ang mga kabataan. Dagdag na taon, dagdag na bayarin at dagdag na pasakit lamang, at wala ang mga pangako ng maayos na edukasyon at trabaho,” she added.

The “genuine solution” to improve the quality of education, Elago said, is the “promotion of an educational system that would truly address the needs of the Filipino youth and Philippine society in general.”

De Vera earlier announced that they decided to “review and change” the approval process of projects under the K-12 Transition Program.

He also said he stopped all new CHED Discovery-Applied Research and Extension for Trans/Inter-disciplinary Opportunity or DARE TO Research Grant because they were “defective” and “Congress cut the K-12 funding for research by P800 million.”

114 fees allowed

Meanwhile, Elago also filed HRN 2555 urging the House of Representatives to “condemn and revoke” the memorandum released by CHED and the Unified Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education Act (UniFAST) allowing the collection of 141 fees despite Free Tertiary Tuition and Other School Fees Law.

Among the fees that are not covered by the free tuition policy according to the memorandum, are textbooks, laboratory tools, and instruction materials.

“These imposed fees assault the purpose of the student movement’s victory in the removal of fee collection under free education,” Elago stressed. /jpv