Drilon: Nothing wrong in K-12 law

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—Senate President Franklin Drilon said Congress stands by the Enhanced Basic Education Act (Republic Act No. 10533) amid efforts from a group of teachers to suspend the program until safeguards are set for those who may lose their jobs during a transition period when no high school graduate would enter college.

Drilon made the assertion days after the Supreme Court en banc issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on a government circular that would have removed freshman college subjects, which a senior high school program now offers under RA 10533, known as the K-12 program (kindergarten plus 12 years of basic education).

The April 21 TRO was requested by a group of educators and lawmakers, including National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera, which complained that Commission on Higher Education Memorandum No. 20 removed Filipino and Panitikan (Philippine Literature) as core subjects when it reduced the number of subjects that are to be taught in a new general education curriculum for college.

The high court has yet to act on a March 12 petition seeking a TRO on the K-12 program by various teachers’ organizations, including the Union of Faculty and Employees of Saint Louis University (Ufeslu) in Baguio City.

“We believe we can stand on the law we passed [in 2013],” Drilon said before he addressed graduates of the Benguet State University on Saturday.

Difficult but meaningful

In his speech, Drilon said prioritizing education and healthcare count among the “difficult but meaningful reforms” undertaken by the administration of President Aquino.

“Our people are our biggest asset,” he said.

Equipping a generation of Filipinos with skills to thrive in a globalizing economy is key to sustaining the country’s economic achievements, he added.

Despite recent attacks on the K-12 program, Congress has no reason to review the law, particularly because “what the SC has restrained was not the K-12 [law]; it is the circular of CHEd which is being questioned,” Drilon said.

Ufeslu had asked the high court to restrain RA 10533 for at least three years until their concerns are settled.

“It is not that we do not want changes in the education system. We just do not want teachers and other nonteaching employees to lose their jobs,” said Ronald Taggaoa, Ufeslu secretary general.

Last year, a group of officials of colleges and universities in the country estimated that about 80,000 tenured professors and instructors could be retrenched by schools that would be unable to cope with the loss of students from 2016 to 2018, the period when Grade 10 students would be required to complete senior high school credits before proceeding to college.

8,000 teachers affected

But Education Secretary Armin Luistro, in an earlier interview here, said only 8,000 college teachers would be affected by the transition, based on discussions between the Department of Education (DepEd) and other agencies.

Luistro said these teachers could be trained so they can be absorbed by the DepEd, which needs new teachers for the extended basic education program.

Most universities and colleges have initiated programs in a bid to retain their teaching staff, said Ellen Donato, DepEd Cordillera director. Some universities in the region, like Saint Louis University, will offer senior high school programs, she said.

In Calamba City, the top official of the DepEd in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) expressed confidence about the department’s readiness to fully implement the K-12 program in 2016.

Speaking at an education summit here on Wednesday, Diosdado San Antonio, DepEd Calabarzon director, said the regional DepEd is prepared for its first batch of Grade 11 students next year.

The number of classrooms in the region has increased from 342 in 2010 to 9,356 at present.

DepEd Calabarzon has also hired 13,963 teachers over the last five years and plans to hire 4,000 more this year, he added.

“There’s no backing out. This will happen and we will not be embarrassed,” he said.

Vincent Cabreza and Kimberlie Quitasol, with a report from Jhoanna Marie Buenaobra, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon