A letter-number combo defines one of the Philippine government’s boldest moves: K to 12. As the Department of Education (DepEd) rolled out Grade 12 this school year, Secretary Leonor Magtolis-Briones asserts that the program, the boldest move made by the government in the history of the Philippine educational system, is primarily geared to benefit Filipino learners and the country.
“I always insist that K to 12 is not only for our regional friends or for our international neighbor or for the global community, we are doing this for ourselves,” Briones said.
As schools opened their doors on June 5 to 27.7 million learners, which include the first batch of Grade 12 learners, Briones maintained the implementation of K to 12 is not propelled only on the advice of the international community, or as a requirement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
“We rolled out the K to 12 because Filipinos should realize the rich advantage of the new curriculum in making the youth more productive and competitive, not only overseas but more so in their country,” Briones said.
“We are doing K to 12 for ourselves and for the Philippine education,” she added. “We are doing this to be able to compete in our own country so that we can equip our learners with appropriate skills, creativity and intelligence to cope with the changing world.”
Germinal
THE K to 12 is the innovative curriculum of DepEd that covers kindergarten and 12 years of basic education. The program aims to provide sufficient time for students to master concepts and skills, develop lifelong learners and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills development, employment and entrepreneurship.
Briones said that when she assumed the stewardship of DepEd, it was her vision that beyond quality, the constitutional provision is making education accessible, relevant and liberating.
“We want quality education to be liberating from intellectual, social and even material poverty,” she emphasized.
Briones recalled when President Duterte solicited her opinion in the implementation of the new curriculum, especially the Senior High School (SHS) program, her answer was to follow the mandate of the law.
The K to 12 program is mandated by Republic Act 10533, otherwise known as “Basic Education Act of 2013”. The DepEd began the new learning program in its efforts “to make a change toward a better Philippines” as early as 2011.
K to 12 education reform, Briones claims, “requires courage, determination and political will of revolutionizing the Philippine educational system” amid challenges in more than 70 years.
Records from the DepEd showed there are 2.06 million students in kindergarten, 14.40 million in elementary and 7.65 million in Junior High School (JHS). In SHS, there are 2.84 million public-school students.
For private schools, about 220,802 are enrolled in kindergarten, 1.25 million in elementary, 1.33 million in JHS and 1.27 million in SHS.
Briones emphasized that the SHS curriculum would help prepare graduates for higher education, entrepreneurship, further middle-level skills development, or work. The curriculum contains four tracks that learners and schools may choose from: technical-vocational-livelihood, academic, sports and arts and design.
“All tracks contain a core curriculum that would enable graduates to pursue higher education should they wish,” she concluded.
Hurdles
FOR SY 2017 to 2018, the DepEd created 40,104 teacher items for the K to 10 levels and the SHS.
Briones, however, emphasized the country still needs more teachers, especially in public schools, to address the program’s demands.
“Additional items will be created throughout the year, depending on the actual enrollment for SY 2017-2018,” Briones said. “The Department continues to prioritize hiring of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) faculty affected by the reform program until SY 2021-2022.”
Meanwhile, a total of 55,680 classrooms will be available for K10 and SHS.
“The DepEd is nearly done with the 2014 and the 2015 classroom backlogs and has registered 51.59-percent completion rate from 2014 to 2016,” she told the BusinessMirror.
DepEd-National Capital Region Director Ponciano Menguito clarified they have not issued any directive to merge Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) classes to be taught by only one teacher. Menguito said this may be the contingency measure of the school principal if there are no teachers available to teach the subject.
However, this is only for emergency situations, he explained.
Menguito added that JHS teachers in Metro Manila are not forced to teach in SHS. Teacher hiring for Grades 11 and 12 has been opened since February and is also open for JHS teachers, if they have the expertise.
Investments
A study conducted by the Philippine Normal University (PNU) said the Philippines needs to raise investments in teacher education, especially since it is the lowest in Asia at 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
According to the PNU, doing so can increase the number of board passers in the licensure examination for teachers (LET) and therefore raise teaching quality in K-12.
Edna Luz R. Abulon, PNU Educational Policy Research and Development Center director, said the 64.8-percent passing rate is questionable since the government poured P4.386 billion for teacher preparation over the study period 2008 to 2012.
The study titled “Exploring wastage in teacher preparation investments in the Philippines” said the government invested P59,366 per graduate over four years.
“Yet this was grossly inadequate,” said the study that covered an extensive number of 73,882 teacher education graduates (TEG) in 56 state universities and colleges (SUCs).
The Philippine government’s spending on education is already the second lowest in Asia, just next to Cambodia with 1.4 percent. In the rest of Asia, investment as percentage of GDP was 3.3 percent for Brunei, 4.3 percent for Thailand and 5.6 percent for Malaysia.
Apparently due to the new K-12 program, there is a need to raise the number of teachers due to the added two more years in basic education.
Raising investments in teacher training should result in higher hiring and retention of quality teachers, particularly in basic education (K-12), consequently upgrading learning quality among the youth.
TEGs
TO determine the effectiveness of the government’s investment in teacher education, a cost analysis was conducted by the PNU research team. They compared General Appropriations Act (GAA) figures with enrollment and graduation data in 56 out of 106 SUCs.
Using the National Statistics Office’s (NSO) quarterly Labor Force Survey from 2007 to 2011, the study analyzed wastage in government investment by comparing the number of TEGs who did not pursue a teaching job.
The study showed that six regions of the Top 8 best LET performers (with lowest failure rate) from 2009 to 20012 were also those that received highest government support funding: NCR and Regions 6, 1, 5, 3 and 2.
“The study indicated that the lower the education cost or government support, the greater the tendency to have higher percentage of failure in the LET,” said Abulon.
Region 5 got the highest government support in teacher preparation investment from 2008 to 2010 at P136.5 million. It was followed by NCR at P129.6 million then the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at P126.9 million.
Among the reasons TEGs ranked highly and why they did not take teachings jobs include: better appraisal in other jobs (better salary, better working conditions), need to support family (financially), mismatched personality with teaching, medical considerations and uncertainty in career choice about teaching.
From 2007 to 2011, just 59.54 percent of TEGs took teaching jobs and the rest, 40.46 percent, went to perform other jobs elsewhere, the PNU authors said.
Based on the 2012 Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics survey, teaching jobs in private schools connote lower salary.
Salary levels of teaching jobs are comparative to those only received by bookkeeping clerks, call-center agents and air-travel clerks.
And since these competitor jobs are held in air-conditioned rooms versus non-airconditioned rooms in schools, TEGs preferred to take competitor jobs.
Recommendations
ACCORDING to the PNU study, there should be a review of directions in public spending in order to improve teacher education. Likewise, the government should also conduct a review of teachers’ salaries to adjust these and attract more TEGs to seriously pursue teaching jobs.
The national government should also suspend or terminate teacher education programs in SUCs that have low LET passing rates.
Very important, the government should review the DepEd’s recruitment policies with a view to speeding up the hiring process for new teachers. The government is also advised to enhance in-service teacher incentives and professional development for DepEd teachers in both public and private schools.
It should review admission and retention policy for pre-service teachers so that these teachers will commit to a lifelong teaching job and appreciate its nobility, the PNU study recommends.
Likewise, the government should also adopt strategies and programs so that SUCs and private TEIs (teacher education institutions) with good LET records could help poor SUCs improve on LET performance.
The PNU study also zeroed in on teacher workload “as the common denominator when teachers were asked why they leave their professions.”
“This particular result mirrored what have caused the ‘teacher loss phenomenon’ in some countries like in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.”
French connection
SCIENCES Po, one of the world’s leading international research universities in the field of social science based in Paris, France, is opening its doors to Filipino college faculty and staff by offering scholarships for graduate studies.
According to the 2017 QS World University Subjects Rankings, Sciences Po is top five in politics and international studies and 62nd in social science and management. It is also known for producing many notable public figures, including five of the last seven French presidents, the latest being the recently elected President Emmanuel Macron.
In partnership with the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), with the support of the Embassy of France in the Philippines, the joint scholarship program will open up 10 slots for teaching and nonteaching staff from Philippine HEIs.
The scholarship will offer premier master’s- and PhD-level programs in politics, social policy and administration and urban studies. Awarded scholars will be receiving privileges that include coverage of tuition, nonacademic fees and monthly living allowance, among others.
CHEd Chairman Patricia B. Licuanan and Sciences Po President Frédéric Mion formalized the partnership through a memorandum of agreement.
“Through this scholarship, we aim to support outstanding grantees with the potential to become leaders in the field of social science in the Philippines. We eagerly look forward to our first cohort of scholars as we launch the call for applications this year until the first quarter of 2018,” Licuanan said.
Licuanan led a delegation to France composed of representatives from six universities, including Visayas State University and the University of Southern Mindanao.
The partnership with Sciences Po is also part of CHED’s ongoing efforts through the K to 12 Transition Program to invest and support HEI faculty and staff in upgrading their qualifications during the transition period.
Transitioning
THE K to 12 Transition Program is a five-year effort aimed at the strategic development of HEIs and personnel during the transition period from 2016 to 2021. The program includes a range of programs to support faculty and staff through scholarships for master’s and doctoral programs, nondegree programs, as well as institutional grants for HEIs.
Opposition
THE Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has been very vocal in opposing the implementation of the K-12 program.
The ACT cited the DepEd first needs to address issues like lack of classrooms and learning materials and the low salary of public school teachers.
ACT National Chairman Benjamin Valbuena said there are still public schools that don’t have enough teachers and even lack facilities.
“And yet the DepEd is just playing blind and deaf to the existing problems.”
He said there are also 3.4 million dropouts because of lack of school vouchers. “Not to mention that they don’t have the money to go to school,” he added.
The SHS is “not for free but for sale,” Valbuena said.
“The DepEd already allocated P34.5 billion for SHS vouchers even without doing the auditing of P22 billion last year,” Valbuena said in an interview.
He alleges that only profit-oriented private schools are the ones benefitting from the K to 12 program.
“If DepEd will just spend the P34.5-billion budget for the SHS vouchers and even the P70-billion Conditional Cash Transfer (of the Department of Social Welfare and Development), [we] could already build classrooms that could accommodate 1.8 million learners,” he lamented.
Another group, the Teachers Dignity Coalition, has maintained strong opposition to the addition of two more years to the 10-year basic education cycle.
Other policy improvements recommended by a study of the Philippine Normal University
- Further studies may be conducted on salary incentives that would attract quality teachers
- Other further research may be on reasons for poor LET performance, a benchmarking study on admissions policy on teacher education in both government and private SUCs and the development and standardization of teaching aptitude examination for Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) nationwide
- Give incentives to teachers, primarily in the form of a more attractive compensation,
- Adopt policies in some OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation Development) countries like the US that offer loan condonation and signing bonuses to teachers
- Adopt practices in other developed countries to retain teachers such as offering scholarships, special allowances, free computer and free housing and accommodation
- Adopt incentives like those for new teachers in South Korea that include preemployment training on classroom management, student counseling and teacher tasks, instructional guidance, student aptitude guidance and supervision of clerical work
- Adopt a recommendation from the 2011 International Summit on Teaching Profession that stressed the importance of boosting image of teachers and creating a professional working environment for them in order to attract more qualified teachers
- Exclude qualified candidates for teacher education students from paying entrance examination fees and from filing some costly requirements (such as original NSO birth certificate) and application fee payments
- Adopt policies institutionalizing best practices such as an MMSU (Mariano Marcos State University ) program offering scholarships for teacher education to honor high-school graduates—valedictorian, salutatorian, first to third honorable mention from a class of 50 or more students
- Review current DepEd prohibition for teachers to teach in another school which perhaps must be applied only on permanent teachers but not on temporary teachers in order to help them enhance income
- Cut further hiring period of DepEd since division heads are given this responsibility—”taking several layers of authority,” which is why some teaching applicants just grab other jobs that are available. DepEd may have claimed that it reduced hiring period from 8 to 3 months in 2013. But the study skipped the fact that some TEGs are first employed as volunteer teacher or as local government-funded teacher (prior to DepEd hiring)
- Adopt a compensation policy based on workload since some teachers shifted to jobs that are more “time-bound” (compared to teaching, a never-ending job where lesson preparation and grading reports have to be brought home)
Source: “Exploring wastage in teacher preparation investments in the Philippines,” Edna Luz R. Abulon, Antriman V. Orleans, Zyralie L. Bedural, Adonis P. David, Jaime V. Florentino, Teresita T. Rungduin | Philippine Normal University
Image credits: Nonie Reyes
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