Graduation is a common theme in the country around this time of the year. For us in the news media, when we write about graduation, we always quote the number of new graduates joining the job market.
This year that number is between 1 million to 1.2 million, according to government and private estimates. We remember, not too long ago, the number of yearly entrants to the labor force was only about 500,000. How it had doubled in such a short time is no wonder.
Each year about 2 million more Filipinos are added to the Philippine population. Government projections say that by 2022, at the end of President Duterte’s term, there would be around 114 million Filipinos. Imagine how many more Filipinos would be looking for a job then.
Prospects for young job hunters today are not promising. Associated Labor Union Spokesman Alan Tanjusay said new graduates will be facing various concerns, like job-skills mismatch, short-term contractual work, low wages and unsafe workplaces. He said the mismatch between skills and the actual jobs available in the market is the main reason for the country’s growing problem of unemployment and underemployment.
This makes the success of the K to12 curriculum reform all the more imperative, because it was basically undertaken to boost skills-to-job matching and human capital development, to make our education system more suited to the real demands of various industries.
There have been many objections to K to 12. There is even a pending petition in the Supreme Court (SC) to have it recalled, filed by parents and teachers from Manila Science High School. It has been languishing in the tribunal for two years. We have to wonder what would happen if the SC suddenly rules in favor of the petition. Kids are already in senior high school. Indeed, other kids have already graduated.
When the Department of Education started implementing the curriculum reform in 2012, we wondered why the government was already doing it when the bill that was supposed to mandate it, guide its implementation and provide its budget was still pending in Congress.
Indeed, much of the delay then in passing the bill and enacting it into law was due to opposition from parents and stakeholders on the additional expenses for an extended basic education cycle (kindergarten plus six years grade school, four years of junior high school and two years of senior high school) and the lack of preparation for it by the government.
Today, though, much of that opposition had been rendered moot. It is already a law (Republic Act 10533, or the Enhanced Basic Education Act). It is already being implemented. Our kids are already going through it. There is no going back.
We should all just try to make the most out of this curriculum—students, schools, the government and the private sector.
Let us link our schools with the different industries and make the curriculum relevant, to provide real options and income opportunities for graduates.
The government must also work doubly hard in providing K to 12 with enough teachers, textbooks, facilities and other basic needs, as well as cutting down the significant dropout rate in senior high school.
The senior high-school program is supposed to prepare students for immediate employment after graduation. The idea is, after Grades 11 and 12, they would not be just old enough to work, but skilled and qualified enough to get a job, whether they go on to college or not. Those who go on to college are supposed to be better prepared having gone through the different track categories offered by its more specific curriculum.
We hope the government with the help of the private sector can deliver on K to 12’s promise so it would not be an added burden to parents and their kids but, instead, be a boon to efforts to make our graduates at par with international standards and more employable in 21st-century workplaces.