Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Antonio Trillanes IV remained unconvinced Tuesday of the necessity of having the K+12 program being implemented by the Department of Education which added two years in the basic education system.
During the joint hearing of the Senate committees on education, arts and culture joint with government corporations and public enterprises, ways and means and finance and science and technology, Trillanes grilled Department of Education (DepEd) Undersecretary Yolanda Quijano.
“You benefited from a 10-year basic education program, and yet you are saying your program did not work,” Trillanes said.
“We senators are beneficiaries of the 10-year program, are you saying we are intellectually inferior?” Trillanes asked Quijano.
“I was a beneficiary of the 10-year program, and I can hold my ground with my contemporaries elsewhere,” the Senator added.
The K+12 program that the DepEd began implementing this school year, added two more years in the secondary or high school level.
Quijano explained that the Philippines is the only country in Asia that is not yet implementing a 12-year basic education curriculum and that the 10-year education program restricts Filipino graduates from seeking employment abroad. She added that the curriculum also aims to train student on vocational skills for them to qualify for employment upon graduation.
However, Trillanes remained unimpressed by the answer and said that it should not be the policy of the government to export graduates. Quijano then argued that it could not be helped that many graduates seek jobs abroad because there is a lack of employment opportunities locally.
“”Then the solution is to provide opportunities here… If the problem is unemployment, then let us provide employment,” Trillanes said.
“Let us not tinker with this experimental program and force it upon everyone,” he added.