SC urged to expedite proceedings on nullifying K-12 program
Parents, teachers, and students from Manila Science High School on Monday asked the Supreme Court to expedite the proceedings on their petition to nullify the K-12 program, or else many teachers and education personnel will lose their jobs and students will be forced to quit school because they cannot afford an additional years of senior high school.
In their motion to expedite proceedings, they urged the high court to issue a ruling before the start of the school year, otherwise senior high school will be forced to attend two additional years of senior high school.
Petitioners added that thousands of college teachers will be massively displaced from their jobs “in violation of the mandate on the State to afford full protection to labor, particularly their right to security of tenure as well as the fate of hundreds of thousands of Grade 10 students who will inevitably be forced to drop out either because there is no senior public high school available for them to go to or they will not able to afford the costs of private education, in violation of the duty of the State to make education, particularly, free public education accessible to all.”
Under the K to 12 program, two more years, referred to as the senior high school, will be added to the current 10-year basic education system.
The new system covers kindergarten and 12 years of basic education: six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school.
The Department of Education (DepEd) said that senior high school students can specialize in the area of academics, technical-vocational, and sports.
High school graduates this year will be the first batch to have an additional two years of high school. Basically, no high school graduates can enter college this coming school year because of the government’s program, leaving some 80,000 college teachers and non-teaching staff possibly losing their jobs.
Petitioners said it has been eight months since they have filed their petition. Only after eight months did the high court issue a ruling dismissing their bid to temporary stop K-12’s implementation.
Petitioners, through their counsel Severo Brillantes, said they could not understand why the high court denied their motion for a halt order against K-12 pending ruling on the merits of the case.
Petitioners “find themselves most helpless to even dispute said denial as the Honorable Court after giving advance notice of its said action, did not even bother to explain why it has so acted or what are the arguments which served as basis for its said decision, when their sacred constitutional right to due process of law dictates that, after they have waited this long, the Honorable Court should have informed them likewise in advance of the reasons that led it to its decision to deny their prayer for a TRO.”
Last week, the high court dismissed the bid of petitioners to temporarily halt the implementation of the K-12 program while the decision on the merits of the case is still pending.
Aside from Manila Science High School, other petitioners include Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (CoTeSCUP), Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisang Progresibong mga Manggagawa (SENTRO), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), National Confederation of Labor (NCL), Senator and Vice Presidential aspirant Antonio Trillanes IV and the Magdalo Partylist, the suspend K-12 Coalition led by Prof. Rene Tadle of the Council of Teachers and staff of Colleges and Universities in the Philippines, National Artists Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera, Representatives Antonio Tinio (ACT Teachers’ Partylist), Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna Partylist), Emmi De Jesus and Luz Ilagan (Gabriela Partylist), Fernando “Ka Pando” Hicap (Anakpawis Partylist), Terry Ridon (Kabataan Partylist).
Petitioners asked the high court to strike down Republic Act (RA) No. 10533, also known as An Act Enhancing the Philippine Basic Education System, arguing that it was passed “without massive consultations”; makes education “inaccessible” to all, especially to lower-income Filipinos; and causes the displacement of tens of thousands of teaching and non-teaching personnel. JE
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