Gov’t faces more lawsuits over K-12

Amid final preparations for the start of classes next week, the government is facing a slew of fresh lawsuits against its K-12 program from parents, students and academic leaders who assailed as “unconstitutional” the flagship education reform law.

At least 36 petitioners on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to stop the implementation of the Kindergarten to 12 years (K-12) program, the third such challenge to the law that adds two years of senior high school to what used to be a 10-year basic education cycle.

Another set of petitioners that include National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera, several lawmakers, academics and other advocacy groups are set to file a similar petition on Friday.

In Davao City, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said it would also file a petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the controversial law with the Supreme Court.

In a 55-page petition filed Thursday, the petitioners represented by the Suspend K-12 Coalition and the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers said the program was against the spirit of the 1987 Constitution, as it violated, among others, “the constitutional provisions on legislation and the principles of separation of powers.”

Aside from a TRO, the petition asked the court to stop the Department of Finance from releasing funds for the law’s implementation.

Withdraw signatures

The high court should also compel Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte to withdraw their signatures approving the law, according to the petition.

Named respondents in the petition were Drilon, Belmonte, Education Secretary Armin Luistro, Commission on Higher Education Chair Patricia Licuanan, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Director-General Joel Villanueva, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz and Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima.

The petitioners said parents and their organizations were “not consulted on and informed of this major shift in the curriculum,” and that the two years added to the educational cycle would mean a bigger financial burden for them.

According to the petition, the Constitution only specified elementary education as “compulsory,” but the K-12 law “unduly expanded the constitutional definition of basic education… [b]y making kindergarten and secondary education compulsory.”

“It is an imposition of parental obligation… which is dependent on opportunities [and] services that the State itself must generate. How can parents be obliged to send children to secondary schools where such are not accessible?” the petitioners asked.

The petition added that the approved version of the K-12 law had discrepancies with the consolidated version published in the Senate Journal on Jan. 30, 2013, as it “lack[ed] certain provisions on curriculum development and a review mechanism for [the program],” among other inconsistencies.

Meanwhile, ACT official Rosalio Ayque said their petition for a TRO on K-12 would focus on the “unconstitutionality of the program since it contradicts the law [which states] that government should provide the masses access to free education.”

Ayque said the government “lacked readiness and preparations” to implement the law, as could be seen by “the lack of facilities, instruction materials and experienced teachers.”

The government also lacked the budget for the program, as it had allocated only 4 percent of the national budget for education, while the global standard was 6 percent, the ACT representative said.

He added that some 81,000 teachers and nonteaching personnel would become jobless for two years because of the implementation of the K-12 law, as no new students would be enrolling for college in the next two years. Instead, they are obliged to enrol in two more years of high school.

Dave Stephen Villamora of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines said the country’s educational system was confronted with the lack of books, teachers and classrooms, “basic problems that call for basic answers.”

Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan said similar petitions against the K-12 law had been filed with the high court, but remained unacted upon. These include that filed by the Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines.–With a report from Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao