SEPARATION ANXIETY On his first day of school, a Grade 1 pupil cries as his mother leaves him outside his classroom at Epifanio delos Santos Elementary School in Malate, Manila. RICHARD REYES
The Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) on Monday joined calls on the Aquino administration to begin implementation of a program to add two more years in the current 10-year basic education cycle to conform with global standards.
“We feel that this early in program development, more vigorous effort should be poured into ensuring that reform measures are institutionalized and not risk facing obstacles or complete reversal by a new administration come 2016,” said Ramon del Rosario, PBEd chair.
Del Rosario spoke at the PBEd’s annual news briefing to generate awareness on the business community’s response to the need for consensus and sustained advocacy in education reforms. Top business executives attended the briefing.
Warning that global employers tended to look at the overall background of job applicants, Del Rosario said missing two years of basic education could spell doom for those who want to live the Filipino migrant’s dream.
He said that in some countries Filipino engineers were classified as technicians in spite of their college diplomas because they lacked two years of basic education.
K+12
The Department of Education this year is launching the so-called K+12 program—kindergarten, six years of elementary education, four years of junior high school and two years of senior high. However, legislation is required before the 12-year cycle could be enforced in the Philippines, the only country with a 10-year cycle.
Response to the K+12 program is mixed.
Some sectors question the wisdom of the program given the current resource gaps—lack of classrooms, lack of trained teachers, lack of funding, among many others—and the failure so far to raise the quality of education in general, specifically in science, math and English.
The United Nations says the Philippines is way behind the Millennium Development Goals on universal access to basic education.
Del Rosario pleaded with parents to view the two more years of basic education as “a worthy investment,” pointing out that technically, they don’t have to shell out extra money for tuition since the government would appropriate funds for that.
Fewer years in college
“It’s not additional years,” said Edgar Chua, president of Shell Philippines. “The first few years [of college] are put there because basic education is not enough.”
The additional years could make courses like engineering and accountancy a four-year degree, instead of the usual five years colleges and universities offer, Chua said.
“When you look at total number of years, it’s not going to add two years because you include less years in the university and more in basic education,” he added.
Besides, graduates of the 10-year basic education system, whose average age is 16, are mostly “unemployable,” Del Rosario said. Employment age is 18.
To enable them a decent shot at work, their parents have to spend at least four semesters at a college or university before employers could consider them potential hires, he said.
“When basic education is weak, the foundation is weak, that’s why we are pushing for the K+12. We have to start with good basic education,” Del Rosario said. “Without solid basic education then you are not addressing the problem.”
Synergy
In a statement, the PBEd praised the “synergy” among the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
“Never have we seen this level of synergized effort since the trifocalization of education. This bodes well for the challenges that have plagued education for the longest time,” Del Rosario said.
While the group praised the increase in the education budget to 2.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Del Rosario said this was still from the spending of other countries averaging 6 percent of GDP.