The logo of the Department of Education. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
The Department of Education (DepEd) said it recognized the issue of the employability of K-12 graduates following the Commission on Human Rights’ report that the “pandemic generation” was struggling to land a job.
In a statement, DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa cited the Basic Education Report of the agency earlier this year which indicated that the department would engage with other education agencies and industry partners to deal with the skill mismatch among senior high school (SHS) graduates.
“This forms part of the ongoing review of the SHS curriculum, which shall consider feedback from employers and studies on SHS employability,” he said.
Poa added that the DepEd prioritized capacity building for the teachers as it addresses the quality of entry-level educators, unfilled teaching and teaching-related positions, ancillary tasks assigned to them and the poor skills in analysis, synthesis and evaluation, “which are crucial and relevant to the emerging economy.”
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte previously said that the promise of the K-12 curriculum to produce employable graduates still remained a promise.
According to Jocelyn Andaya, director of the DepEd’s Bureau of Curriculum Development, enrollment in the technical vocational and livelihood (TVL) track for SHS students has declined over the past years since K-12 was implemented in the country.
Pursuing higher education
Based on DepEd’s 2021-2022 data, the majority of SHS learners, or 70.59 percent, chose the academic track while only 28.93 percent were in TVL.
“We need feedback if we just need to go back to academic again because it’s a pity if we need to go back to that because the industry needs workers and the SHS is a viable option for employment,” she said in December 2022 during the agency’s consultation with industry partners for the K-12 review.
The SHS curriculum under K-12 has four tracks: academic, TVL, arts and design, and sports.
But at the moment, Andaya said the preferred path of the graduates is pursuing higher education after high school “simply because culturally, parents would prefer … seeing diplomas hung on the walls.”
READ: Concepcion: Gov’t can’t force companies to hire K-12 grads