SENATOR Antonio Trillanes IV on Tuesday said he and like-minded individuals would have to convince the country’s next president to stop the implementation of the K-12 law amid a supposed “chaos” awaiting students, teachers and parents in the next academic year.
This was after the Supreme Court dismissed the bid of several petitioners, including Trillanes, to nullify Republic Act 10533, which adds two more years to the basic 10-year education cycle.
In a roundtable interview with Inquirer editors and reporters, Trillanes, who is seeking the vice presidency, said they will appeal the high tribunal’s decision, maintaining that the additional two years was not necessary.
“Definitely we’re going to file a motion for reconsideration because it’s going to be chaotic come June when the school year opens because a lot of publics schools are not ready even ready to admit senior high school students. And most parents won’t be able to afford the national burden of two years of high school,” Trillanes said.
“For college professors, it means being laid off from work and being forced to teach high school students, which is a totally different thing. We will be feeling the wrath of these people in June and unfortunately the next president will have to face that. We will have to convince the next president to suspend it. In all fronts, it is not necessary,” he added.
The soldier-turned-senator argued that the younger generation of Filipinos today was supposedly brighter so they would not need the additional two years that previous generations did not have.
“I don’t believe we need an extra two years. These millennials are so much better and brighter than our generation. So I think we just need to bring back that classroom environment which is conducive to learning,” he said.
Trillanes said the government should focus instead on addressing more basic problem hounding the education sector, such as lack of facilities.
“We need more teachers, we need more classrooms, more books that now are being shared by more or less five students so how can you study like that. Most of the time are being used by teachers in classroom administration than actual teaching, so these are the real and basic problems that have yet to be addressed,” he said.
“As long as classes are held under trees or in broken classrooms, you can’t expect students to focus,” Trillanes added.
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.
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