Luistro says cost of 12-year education cycle may be lower than P100 billion

Education Secretary Armin Luistro yesterday clarified that contrary to claims by critics, the cost of adding two more years to the current 10-year education cycle may be lower than P100 billion.

“That amount is based on just a particular assumption and not on a study. What I want to do is to review the actual cost of a 12-year education cycle,” Luistro said.

Luistro made the claim after several sectors said that adding two more years can cost the governmnt more than P100 million.

He said the details of the cost involved and other related issues of the controversial program will be known in October when the department will bare the initial draft of the plan dubbed K+12 to extend the basic education cycle to 12 years.

“We will include this in the review. The question here is P100 billion really needed to add two more years?” the DepEd chief said.

Aside from the 12-year education cycle, the K+12 program will also involve the “enhancement” of the current curriculum by weeding out “unneeded” subjects and adding relevant ones such as tech-voc courses.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said last week that the two-year extension will be free in public schools, adding it is more an investment because it will prepare students for employment even if they forego college. He asked parents not to pass judgment on the extension plan until Oct. 5, during Luistro’s presentation of the details of the extension proposal.

Earlier, former DepEd Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz had said the government might have to shell out P100 billion for the program to fund the construction of additional classrooms, textbooks, chairs and the hiring and salaries of teachers.

Several teachers groups, including the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and the Teachers Dignity Coalition, have opposed the plan and reiterated their stand that the government should address first the shortages in the basic education sector rather than adding two more years to it. Instead of allocating additional funding for the K+12 program, the groups called on the government to allocate at least 4 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product to education, saying the present rate of 2.7 percent is a measly sum considering the influx of enrolees every year.

This year, the DepEd was only allocated P172 billion, P2 billion lower than last year’s P174 billion. Originally, the department requested P190 billion to resolve the gap in classrooms, textbooks and teachers.

Luistro said they would ask for a P380 billion funding for 2011.

But the country’s largest private school organization, the Federation of Association of Private Schools and Administrators, supported the DepEd plan to add two more years to the basic education cycle but warned the department not to tinker with the Revised Basic Education Curriculum. –Jason Faustino, Daily Tribune