MaSci parents, teachers, studes to SC: Act on plea vs K-12

PARENTS, teachers, and students of the Manila Science High School (MaSci) have asked the Supreme Court anew to stop the implementation of the government’s “Kindergarten-to-Grade 12” program.

In its fourth “most urgent” motion which the petitioners filed on Monday, they said that the Grade 10 students will suffer “grave injustice and irreparable injury” should the High Court fail to grant the TRO. They said that students will be subjected to additional two years of Senior High School–a move they consider as “despotic.”

“They respectfully  wish  to  call  the  attention of the Honorable Court that since the school year is about to end, if it still does not resolve their prayer for a TRO, the Grade Ten Students among them, will suffer the grave injustice and irreparable injury of not being admitted to College next school year, despite the utmost merit of their said Motion for a TRO, thereby rendering ineffectual the judgment and reliefs they are praying  for in their instant Petition, among which, is for the two (2) additional years of senior high school to be declared unconstitutional and thus void,” the group said in its statement.

The teachers also lament that they will be displaced due to the K to 12 program.

The group first filed the petition seeking the TRO against K-12 on June 23.

They have since filed three urgent motions for resolution of their TRO plea: first on July 28, 2015, the second on September 17, 2015, and the third on December 2, 2015.

The group also slammed the Court for allowing “most inordinate and unreasonable  delay.”

“It is now time for the Honorable Court to decide as there is no more other time: condemn them to two additional years of senior high school by denying the TRO that they have long prayed for or free them of said unnecessary and most unconstitutional burden by issuing said TRO and eventually granting their Petition to declare the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum and the two (2) additional years of senior high school they are assailing as well as the DepEd Order and law which serve as their bases to be unconstitutional,” they said.

In their petition, they said that the Department of Education (DepEd) has failed to consult them prior to the program’s implementation and that it encroached on the students’ vested rights to finish high school for only four years.

They also assailed that the K-12 is violative of due process of the students and intrusive of their right to education.

The K to 12 is the biggest educational initiative instituted by the Aquino administration. It seeks to add two years in the basic education system in the country.

It was first implemented in 2012.