Various groups against K-12 staged a picket outside the SC on Thursday. /Tetch Torres-Tupas, INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines–Groups of teachers and students trooped to the Supreme Court on Thursday and asked to stop the implementation of the government’s K-12 program, a national 12-year basic education program.
In a 26-page petition, petitioners also urged the high court to strike down Republic Act (RA) No. 10533, also known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, as well as its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) and Joint Guidelines (JG). The alliance also sought the nullification of a Department of Education Memorandum, Memorandum No. 2, Series of 2015, issued in connection with the program’s implementation.
Under the K-12 program dictates a year of kindergarten, six years of elementary school, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school. It is set to be fully implemented in 2016.
Petitioners said the law, IRR, JG and Memorandum violated the due process and academic freedom.
“It constitutes wrongful interference with the employment and profession of faculty and staff as they are being forced to face the twin prospects of diminution in pay and retrenchment…More importantly, what is involved is academic freedom or freedom of the mind to publish or instruct in the tertiary level or institutions of higher learning. In short, when freedom of the mind is imperiled by law, it is freedom that commands a momentum of respect…,” the petition stated
With the implementation of K-12, petitioners told the high court that more than 70,000 college faculty and non-teaching personnel would lose their jobs because of the lack of first year and second year college enrollees during the transition period starting 2016.
This, the petitioners said, showed the law disregarded the Constitutional guarantee of full protection to labor and promotion of full employment.
“As a mater of constitutional policy, law should lead to work creation or protection, not work displacement or loss. This is so because the labor rule or standard regards work as a source of dignity. Work is not a commodity,” petitioners said.
Petitioners added the K-12 has trimmed down the college General Education Curriculum (GEC) and eventually cascaded subjects from college to senior high school has led to the removal of vital subjects such as Filipino, Literature and Philippine Government and Constitution.
Courses such as housekeeping and caregiving were added to senior high school.
“Generally, the anti-tertiary education mantra of the K-12 program will manufacture young and docile laborers who will be forced to accept and be permanently chained to low paying and contractual jobs at a time when even many college graduates are unable to find good jobs,” petitioners said.
Some of the petitioners include the Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (CoTeSCUP), Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisang Progresibong mga Manggagawa (SENTRO), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), National Confederation of Labor (NCL), among others.
Respondents include the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Labor and Employment, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Before the filing of the petition, the anti-K-12 groups staged a picket in front of the Supreme Court.
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