For Senator Edgardo J. Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on education, the “most important purpose” of the K to 12 (kindergarten to Grade 12) program “is its potential to address the acute job-skills mismatch in the country.”
Speaking at the recent national convention of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (Cocopea), an umbrella organization for five private schools groups, Angara said the K to 12 program would address gaps in life skills high-school graduates needed to proceed to college, work or become entrepreneurs.
The senator said basic education should not be just a preparation for college.
Although Cocopea members expressed all-out support for K to 12, saying they realized the country needed it, offering high-school graduates options other than college presents problems for higher-education institutions (HEIs). It will mean fewer students in some tertiary academic programs (not necessarily a bad thing as it could lead to the closure of substandard programs that the Commission on Higher Education, or CHEd, has been trying to do).
Of even greater concern is the transition period, the two years when students are in grades 11 and 12, instead of in college.
Dr. Rosario Lapus, president of Miriam College, pointed out in a paper presented at the conference that between 2016 and 2018, when the first group of K to 12 students would be in grades 11 and 12, private schools would have only a few—even zero—first year college enrollees.
Cocopea allayed fears, however, that schools would try to make up for the shortfall in revenue through exorbitant fees, even though they anticipate financial difficulties arising from the phased implementation of the K to 12 program.
According to the association, the schools would not want to price themselves out of the market, so they would have to do a lot of belt-tightening.
They should also consider several strategies to deal not just with what Lapus called the “lean years” but also the changes that would result from the full implementation of K to 12, which would stream graduates into college or jobs.
Sidelined teachers
How would schools deal with sidelined first year college teachers, for instance, during the transition? One possible solution is for high-school departments to allow these teachers to handle secondary classes, specifically grades 11 and 12.
Both CHEd and the Department of Education (DepEd) are open to the idea. CHEd chairperson Dr. Patricia Licuanan said it might be possible during the transition, while Education Secretary Armin Luistro, FSC, said stakeholders would have to be consulted.
But there are legal issues as both elementary and high-school teachers have to pass licensure tests administered by the Professional Regulation Commission.
Even if there were no legal impediments, Lapus pointed out, it would not be easy to send a college mentor to high school, as “grade school, high school and college are all very different entities. High-school teaching is very different from college work. The students are different, the dynamics are different, teaching conditions, structure, pedagogy are all very different.”
And even if college faculty members agreed to teach high school, they would have to be paid more as they would have advanced education and training. Most likely they would be holders of graduate and postgraduate degrees.
Jose Paulo E. Campos, president of Emilio Aguinaldo College and Cocopea chairman, in a press conference during the convention, said every school would just have to develop its own way of coping, the approach depending on the community where the school is based.
‘Twinning’ schemes
Institutions could collaborate to maximize use of resources and take advantage of each other’s strengths. The idea of “twinning” was raised by some members. An institution teaching agriculture, for instance, could partner with a school offering business management for a course on agricultural management, given the government’s desire to promote agriculture-related courses.
Dr. Amelou Benitez Reyes, president of Philippine Women’s College (PWC) of Davao, an affiliate of the Philippine Women’s University, said the crisis should be an opportunity for creativity and innovation. She said schools were getting a chance “to explore new products, not (to stick to the) usual” and to explore projects beyond preparing high-school graduates for tertiary education.
Reyes encouraged private schools to explore alternative learning systems to bring back to the educational system some five million out-of-school youth (OSY).
“They have been deprived of education,” she said. “I think we in private education have not yet developed our capacity to reach out to them.”
Reyes said equivalency and accreditation systems could be adopted for home study, open high school, online and community-based learning schools for indigenous knowledge and traditions, etc.
The open high school (OHS) has, in fact, gone beyond the drawing board. Several institutions, including Reyes’ PWC, will be offering it beginning school year 2012-13, allowing OSY of all ages to get a diploma in secondary education.
The OHS will not only bring education to the OSY but also allow private schools to optimize the use of their resources. Like the open university, it will adopt flexible schedules and allow different learning situations.
As explained by Luistro, OHS would allow students unable to attend regular classes to study at home or under other special arrangements. He said the implementation of the OHS program by private schools would widen access to secondary education.
Subsidy for OHS students
To encourage participation in OHS by both students and schools, the DepEd is expanding its financial assistance program to cover enrolees in the system.
Starting next school year, the Education Service Contracting (ESC) program, part of the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (Gastpe), will cover OHS students, who will get a subsidy of P6,000 each. The DepEd targets 40,000 grantees initially.
ESC, which goes directly to schools, provides a subsidy to deserving public school elementary graduates who wish to pursue secondary education.
It is complemented by the Education Voucher System, which issues a voucher in the name of the beneficiary.
Reyes also recommended a ladderized curriculum that would give students certain competencies at any level, providing them with the option to stop their schooling at any point after acquiring the skills they needed.
Reyes, who is also a trustee of the Private Educational Assistance Committe-Fund for Assistance to Private Education, would also like to see something similar to the community colleges in the United States, where Grade 12 graduates who want college diplomas could go.
In these proposed colleges, students could get two years of general education and learn skills. It would be similar to the old two-year Associate in Arts program.
As in the old system, Reyes said graduates of the two-year course should be able to earn a bachelor’s degree by the third year, which would be focused on his/her chosen field of specialization, and a graduate degree by the fourth.
Tesda programs
Dr. Peter P. Laurel, president of Lyceum University of the Philippines-Batangas and the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities, said private schools would also consider offering short-term courses under the jurisdiction of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
“This [strategy] presents enormous opportunities for colleges and universities,” he said. Grades 11-12 could offer training that would make it unnecessary for some students to proceed to college, he added.
Fr. Gregorio L. Bañaga Jr., president of Adamson University and the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, said private schools offering Grades 11-12 could make use of their existing resources, maximizing the use of existing laboratories, for instance, so students could work before going to college.
Fr. Joel E. Tabora, SJ, president of Ateneo de Davao University, suggested that schools could develop programs that would respond to the needs of their own communities and neighboring areas.
He said Ateneo de Naga University created a course for kindergarten assistants upon seeing the need for such skilled workers. In Davao, where solar energy was gaining popularity, Grades 11 and 12 could focus on training technicians to service solar panels, he said.
The idea was also endorsed by Reyes who said schools should not wait for the government to tell them what to do but should take the initiative to adapt to their communities. There could be more frequent and intensive exchanges of ideas between schools and local industries.
Instead of seeking employment elsewhere, graduates could look closer to home and meet the human resource requirements of local businesses and enterprises. These industries could tell schools the kinds of skills they need and even offer apprenticeship programs for Grades 11-12 students, hiring the graduates afterwards.
As for classrooms that would be left vacant during the transition period, the DepEd is thinking of asking HEIs to allow the use of these rooms by schools that need more space.
The department is discussing with CHEd the possibility of this arrangement and its mechanics, including whether or not rent should be paid and what the rates should be.
In an effort to help ease the tertiary schools’ K to 12 woes, Representative Juan Edgardo Angara, who chairs the congressional committee on higher and technical education, announced some legislative measures that would help more students who qualify for academic work go on to college.
One example is the Expanded Government Assistance to students and teachers in private education.
Another is the Comprehensive Study Now Pay Later Program, which aims to give underprivileged but deserving students access to quality education.
He said the law establishing the program was being reviewed to see if it needed amending. Among other things, he said they would see if it would be better to grant outright scholarships instead of loans, as repayment was a problem for beneficiaries unable to find employment.
The congressman said K to 12 was a much-needed reform and the additional two years should not be viewed as an extra cost but an investment in the future.