Petitioners vs K-12 tired of waiting for court to act

AFTER failing to get a resolution three times over, the petitioners have decided to give the Supreme Court a deadline.

Parents, teachers and students from Manila Science High School Monday told the high court it had “no later than the first week of March or before the end of the current school year” to resolve their urgent petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Kindergarten to 12 Years (K-12) program, the education reform program that they believe is unconstitutional.

Asking the court for the fourth time to resolve their TRO plea, the petitioners warned that ignoring their prayer would deprive Grade 10 students of the opportunity to go straight to college from high school.

“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 10 students among them would suffer the grave injustice and irreparable injury of not being admitted to college next school year, despite the utmost merit of their motion for a TRO, thereby rendering ineffectual the judgment and relief they are praying for,” the petitioners said.

The petition, filed in June last year, asks the court to stop the implementation of the Aquino administration’s flagship education reform program so the students would skip senior high school.

The K-12 program aims to improve the quality of high school graduates by adding two years of senior high school, where students could choose specializations, among them, vocational training, music, the arts or sports.

The petitioners said the program was unconstitutional, arguing that K-12 was “not reasonably necessary” for its students as the school’s special science curriculum was “in fact heavier in scope and more advanced,” which the school’s “gifted and talented learners… could easily master within four years.”

The petitioners filed urgent manifestations to resolve their plea for a TRO in July, October and December.

“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.”