President Benigno Aquino III and education officials are set to formally launch on Tuesday the unprecedented Kindergarten to Year 12 (K to 12) basic education reform program, kick-starting a phased implementation set to be completed by 2018.
Aquino, Education Secretary Armin Luistro, Higher Education Chair Patricia Licuanan and Technical Vocational Education Director General Joel Villanueva will lead the April 24 launch of the program in Malacañang, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced.
The occasion will also mark the launch of the new K to 12 curriculum for Grade 1 and First Year High School (Grade 7), which would be introduced in the public schools in June.
K to 12 is the flagship program of the Aquino administration that aims to improve the quality of Philippine education by adding three years to the school curriculum—one year of kindergarten and two years of high school.
During the latter additional years, students may choose to specialize in vocational courses, music and the arts, sports or agriculture to give them more options after high school—that is, whether to proceed to college or begin working with a high school diploma.
Incoming first year high school students in June will be the first batch of public school students to enter the additional senior high school levels in 2016.
This month, Luistro also issued guidelines for the implementation of the new curriculum through Department Order No. 31.
“K to 12 will be implemented starting June with the roll out of Grades 1 and 7 in all public elementary and secondary schools. Private schools are enjoined to do the same. They may further enhance the curriculum to suit their school vision/mission,” Luistro said.
Describing the new curriculum, the DepEd said the 12-year basic education content was designed as a spiral which would “build on the same concepts developed in increasing complexity and sophistication starting from grade school.”
The first batch of senior high school graduates is expected in March 2018.