There has been a lot of clamor for lawmakers to find a way to abolish the K to 12 education system amid criticisms that is defective. A lot of teachers even believe that the educational system should have undergone more revisions before it should have been implemented.
Even lawmakers are taking notice. For instance, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has long been vocal about his criticisms towards the K-12 system, saying that the system is affecting teachers and students alike. Gatchalian believes that the ‘deteriorating competence’ of teachers leads to deteriorating quality of education in the country.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano’s call for an oversight review – and it was backed by other solons, particularly senior administration lawmakers; however, most of them rejected calls for the system’s abolition.
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Because the full implementation of the K-12 program is being slowed down by budget constraints, Reps. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo (PDP-Laban, Lanao del Norte) and Luis Campos Jr. (UNA, Makati City) agreed that there is a need to review the educational system.
But though he supports the review, Dimaporo believes that there is no need to abolish the system, if that is only done to solve the budget issues.
“It is difficult to judge the K-12 with the backlog of teachers and classrooms not fully addressed. K-12 should not be scrapped just as a short cut to resolve the budgetary requirements,” he explained.
The lawmaker also pointed that there has long been a clamor for an increase in the teachers’ wages.
Opposition Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers Partylist) also agrees with Cayetano even as refiles House Resolution No. 20, seeking for an investigation into the controversies that surfaced with the program’s implementation. She added that Cayetano’s call for review is “long overdue”.
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“We support the House leadership in their move to review the K to 12 program and its effectiveness. This overhaul of the country’s basic education system brought with it a myriad of issues as reported from the field by teachers and other school personnel, parents, and students,” Castro said.
“Today, even college graduates have a hard time looking for jobs with decent wages, how much more do we expect from Grade 12 graduates?”
Source: Manila Bulletin
