‘DepEd’s K+12 good for foreign firms’

MANILA, Philippines—The government’s flagship education program that would extend the basic education cycle by two years seems to be geared toward supplying “semi-skilled workers as cheap labor” for foreign firms, an organization of college editors said.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) said the Department of Education’s (DepEd) K+12 (Kindergarten to 12) program, which would add two years of senior high school to the current 10-year education cycle, may diminish—rather than boost—the qualifications of the graduates.

Cheap labor

“The objective of K+12 is to produce semi-skilled workers as cheap labor for the multinational corporations to exploit. With the inequities in terms of economic status, majority of the people are most willing to enter into jobs no matter how dangerous or short-lived,” the CEGP said in a statement.

The K+12 program is a reform plan that would institutionalize public school kindergarten for better preparation of early learners, decongest the elementary and high school curriculums and introduce two high school levels for specialized training in vocational skills, agriculture, sports, music and the arts, among other employable skills.

World levels

The program seeks to bring Philippine education up to world levels, which has 12 years of basic schooling as a global standard. Only the Philippines, Angola and Djibouti continue to have a 10-year basic education cycle, the DepEd has said.

The DepEd envisions the program to give high school graduates more options after graduation: To start working as qualified high school graduates or to continue on to college. With K+12, Filipino students would finish high school at the employable age of 18.

The new curriculum currently in the works also focuses on the use of the mother tongue in early grades instruction—the first time the system would be institutionalized in the public schools.

But the CEGP said Philippine education had become oriented toward developing manpower for other nations rather than honing professionals for the country.

“The Philippine education system deviates from its objective of producing professionals to usher in progress in this country,” the CEGP said.

‘Overrated solution’

Saying that K+12 was an “overrated solution” to the poor state of Philippine education, the CEGP instead called for a “nationalist education system which will serve the country’s demands and not those of foreign corporations.”

Sought for comment, the DepEd said the program was designed to protect Filipino graduates from abusive employment practices by arming them with better qualifications.

Better preparation

“With the proper qualifications and recognized certification, they would be less prone to exploitative employment practices. Their better preparation for college will give them more expertise, putting them in a position to exact better compensation,” the DepEd said.

“They will also have better skills and preparation to not just limit their future to employment options but to actually start their own enterprises when they graduate at the age of 18,” the DepEd said.