Roxas’ K-12 pitch: Additional 2 years needed in ‘knowledge economy’

Administration standard-bearer Mar Roxas on Thursday made a new pitch for the government’s K-12 program, which adds two more years to the country’s basic education cycle.

Roxas told hundreds of university officials and student leaders that the additional two years to the four-year secondary-level education were necessary to help the Philippines in transition to a “knowledge economy.”

“I can only say that, clearly, this is something that we needed to do, as hard as it has been. The additional two years is undebatable,” Roxas said during the 6th National Congress of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Association of the Philippines in Quezon City.

“This period that we are in is the time of knowledge economy, transitioning to jobs that require skill competence. We need to be able to prepare our country, our people for this transition,” he added.

If elected president, Roxas said he was “committed with the continuation” of the transition to K-12.

As to perennial worries that the transition would cost teachers their jobs, the Liberal Party standard-bearer said “several measures have already been put in place for the training of faculties so they can gain more competence and skills.”

“It’s very important that even as we address the physical infrastructure that has hampered our country’s competitiveness, we also need to address the human infrastructure—what will propel our country into prosperity in the coming years,” he said.

Republic Act No. 10533 or the K to 12 program brought the total of secondary school to six years—four years of junior high school and two years of senior high school. General education courses in college would be integrated in the two years of senior high school.

Roxas said the country needed to “keep moving up the value chain” by ensuring quality tertiary education, in addition to a strong primary and secondary-level education system.

“Pagdating sa elementary and high school, talagang malakas na ang programa ng pamahalaan na pahusayin ang quality of education. We need to keep moving up the value chain,” Roxas said.

“Ang programa natin is two-fold—kailangan nating palakasin ang kakayahan natin sa higher education. Every year there are roughly two million Filipinos joining our population, so hindi natatapos ‘yung pangangailangan natin na magpatayo ng mga classrooms, mag-train ng mga guro,” he added.

While saying that more classrooms were built in the past five years than from 1986 to 2009, Roxas underscored the need for continuous construction and improvement as “there will always be gaps and imperfections” in physical infrastructure.

“Kung manatili tayo dito sa ating kakayahan, dadating ang araw na yung ibang bansa ay ma-o-overtake na tayo,” Roxas said. “We will continue to invest in hard and human infrastructure and strengthen our partnership as well the capacity of the private sector to lead in higher education institutions.”

Noting that the Philippines and the rest of the world had changed “substantially” over the past years, Roxas also recognized the role of the educational sector in nation-building and vowed to respect the independence of private academic institutions.

“The challenges have evolved and have changed … Clearly our country has changed over the past five years. We were known as the sick man of Asia—we could not keep up with the more industrialized countries. But now we are the bright star of Asia,” Roxas said.

“This is supported by an educated population which is contributed by your sector. We look upon you as the trailblazers, as the source of innovation, creativity, and new ideas coming in. In terms of nation building, we welcome the partnership with you,” he added.

Roxas was the only presidential candidate who attended the “Presidential Talk on Private Education and Education Reforms.”

“My father taught me that one of the requisites of success is to show up,” he said in jest. RC

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