Polytechnic University of the Philippines

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Mabini Campus, Sta. Mesa, Manila

Term Paper

K-TO-12 PROGRAM

Prepared to: Dr. Rovelina B. Jacolbia M.E.D.

Prepared by: Lovely Saira N. Piad BBTE III-1D

August 23, 2012

INTRODUCTION
This June 2012 Grade 1 pupils will be taught in their mother tongues, and high school freshmen will be given technical and vocational courses. And they will all take two years longer to complete secondary school, the first batch under the Kindergarten-to-12th Grade (K-to-12) basic education program launched last month. preschoolers nationwide will go through a year of kindergarten. The K-to-12 model will overhaul the current 10-year basic education cycle six years of elementary and four years of high school by adding two years of senior high school, to align our school system with the global 12-year standard. Prior to K-to-12, the Philippines was the only country in Asia and one of only three countries together with Djibouti and Angola of Africa that still had a 10-year basic education cycle. Other countries even have 13 or 14 years of basic and pre-university education. In implementing this campaign promise of President Benigno Aquino III, the Department of Education has underscored the need to address the countrys poor quality of basic education, as reflected in the low scores in national achievement test and international assessment exams. Notably, the passing rates for Grade 6 and high school in the National Achievement Test in 2009-2010 were 69.21 percent and 46.38 percent, respectively. In his presentation on K-to-12 to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry board in January, Elvin Ivan Uy, K-to-12 Program Coordinator of DepED, blamed this poor achievement in basic competencies on lack of instruction time. DepEd said K-to-12 will decongest academic workload to give students more time to master competencies and skills. And as a proven boost to school learning,

However, a 2010 study entitled Length of School Cycle and the Quality of Education by retired UP Professor and former Deputy Minister of Education Abraham Felipe and Fund for Assistance to Private Education Executive Director Carolina Porio, asserts that there is no correlation between the length of the school cycle and the quality of education. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV cited the report in Senate Resolution 499, which he filed in May, directing the Senate Committee on Education and other pertinent Senate committees to probe K-to-12. The Felipe-Porio study argues that longer education cycles do not necessarily result in better international math and science test scores. It noted that some countries with the same or shorter school cycle garnered the highest scores while those implementing the K-to-12 model or more years of schooling got lower scores than the Philippines. For example, Singapore scored the highest compared with countries with longer high school cycles, it cited. The study further warns: if the plan is hastily adopted, pretty soon the problem would be how to cut short a poor quality 12-year cycle. In arguing for SR 499 last June, Trillanes labeled the adaptation of the K-to-12 system a big, costly and potentially disastrous experiment that will worsen the existing problems facing the education sector. Based on figures from DepEd cited in the K-to-12 Policy Brief from Senate, the country is in short of 152,569 classrooms, 103,599 teachers, 95.6 million books and 13.2 million seats, and an estimated P150 billion will be needed to close these gaps in basic education. With an additional two years of high school, the DepEd estimates that P43.7 billion will be needed to provide new classrooms, chairs, textbooks, and water and sanitation facilities, while P17.2 billion is needed to hire teachers and for maintenance and other operating expenses. For

mandatory kindergarten, the government will have to spend P27.1 billion, from SY 2011 to 2015. Exactly the point of Senator Edgardo J. Angara, who chairs the Senate Committee on Science and Technology. Last month he said more comprehensive reforms, such as improving the curriculum, enhancing training and addressing infrastructure gaps quickly and sustainably, are needed on top of teacher K-to-12. Former University of the Philippines president Angara was also disappointed over figures in the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) article, Worrisome Trends Towards Deterioration of Our Human Capital. It said the number of college graduates has not risen fast enough in the last decade. Information from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies blamed low spending on state colleges and universities. NSCB noted that from academic year 2000-2001 to AY 2009-2010, college graduates increased only 2.9 percent a year average. And those who took science education, teacher training, engineering and technology declined as a percentage of all graduates, from 31.3 percent in AY 2000-2001 to 22 percent in 2009-2010. Thus, Angara stresses, while K+12 is in itself significant, it is only one step among the many that we as a country will need to undertake. Indeed, K-to-12 is just one among countless recommendations in the Education Reform Roadmap drafted by the Presidential Task Force on Education under former Ateneo de Manila president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, and handed to President Aquino by his predecessor during their limousine ride from Malacaang to his inauguration on June 30, 2010. Plainly, it will take more than 12 years to make the Filipino smarter. (Ric Saludos colleague Pia Rufino at www.manilatimes.net)

IMPRESSION
K-to-12 Program? I first heard about this program when I was searching for my speech in one of our subjects last semester. This program is inclined with the Public-Private Partnership Program of President Benigno Aquino III. Honestly, I was against to K-to-1 because for

me it will be just an additional expense for the parents and at the same time for the government. Yes, I know that K-to-12 will help our economy but it is not right to use young human resources. I believe that those graduates of K-to-12 programs should be at school after graduating from high school instead of working. It is still the right of the youth to be enrolled in the tertiary level. But this was just at first. K-to-12 is actually good. This program will enable are college graduate to be credited as a professional globally. I heard that nowadays, that the professional here in our country are not treated outside the country as a professional. The program will also help our country to produce a lot of human resource (I hope that the government is also ready to give those human resource a work). K-to-12 will also help us to level up the educational system of our country. Level up because we are one of those few countries that offer a ten year basic curriculum instead of 12 to 14 years.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
Practical Arts was the Revised Secondary Program of 1973. This program includes Business and Distributive Arts, Industrial Arts, Homemaking Arts, Agricultural Arts and Fishery Arts. Practical Arts is a part of the required basic education program for all students in the secondary level from first year through fourth year. Its concern was to provide work

experiences that develop in the student the knowledge, appreciation, skills and desirable work habits essential for effective daily living and for meeting the responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic society. It envisions exposing the first year and second year high school students to at least three of its components depending on the resources and facilities of the school and economic needs of the community. At the end of the second year, the student shall have selected one of the Practical Arts components in which he is particularly interested and in which he will get further training during the third year and fourth year to make him useful member of his family and to gain employment after high school graduation. In the light of the functions and objectives of secondary education as stated in the Department Order No. 20, s. 1973, and considering the aims of the educational system as provided for Presidential Decree No. 6-A, otherwise known as the Educational Act of 1982, and in the Philippine Constitution, Practical Arts should enable the student to: Gain knowledge of the various occupational opportunities in order to make a wise choice of a vocation or career; Acquire knowledge of the material, tools, equipment, processes, products quality standards and skills involved in the various occupations;

Make intelligent decisions regarding the use and conservation of human and material resources;

Develop occupational skills or proficiency essential for entrance employment; Develop love and appreciation for work; Develop desirable attitudes and values which will contribute to effective personal, family, and community living. After a decade, Practical Arts and Home Economics was implemented as a Program for

Decentralized Education and Development (PRODED) under the MECS Memo No. 58, s 1985 which pertains to the New Secondary Education Curriculum, although it was been implemented, still, it is a try-out program under the MECS Memo No. 58, s. 1985. Few more years after, under the Secondary Education Development Program (SEDP), DECS Order No. 11, s. 1989 was implemented. This order changed Practical Arts and Home Technology to Technology and Home Economics (THE) as a response to the needs and conditions of the country the objectives of the THE are: To develop knowledge and skills, values and attitudes; and To provide classroom and practical work experiences. THE under the National Secondary Education Curriculum (NSEC) is offered for 480 minutes time allotment per week (8 hours/week) still containing the same four major learning areas. It is an exploratory course in the first and second years in high school. In the last two years in high school, a course is offered to specialize. Entrepreneurship is the core of THE. While learning the different theories and

principles of simple business management, the principles and concepts in agriculture, industrial arts and home economics are also applied.

SEPD was implemented in the country for 12 years. The House of Representatives made an integrated act to integrate IT education into the Public Elementary and Secondary Curricula and Appropriating Funds which specifically stated in Section 2, the declaration of Policy that it should be the policy of the state in the public school system of the country. Likewise, the state shall encourage the use of Information Technology and its various components. In conformity to the act made by the House of Representatives, the Philippine Commission on Educational Reforms, created on December 7, 1998 through Executive Order No. 46, recommended the adoption of the restructured Basic Education Curriculum and its implementation starting 2002. The 2002 Basic Education Curriculum is a restructing and not a sweeping change of the elementary and secondary curricula (New Elementary and Secondary Curriculum implemented in 1983 and 1989 respectively). Technology and Livelihood Educations function is to enhance and complement the learning competencies of the life skills training and career enhancement program of the curriculum particularly in developing leadership potentials, building desirable work values and character and improving technical and functional skills in Home Economics, Agriculture and Fishery Arts, Entrepreneurship and Computer Education. As I observe in the historical development, the common thing is that the course or the program shall provide the students the skills, knowledge and experiences needed to be applied at work.

AREAS IN THE TLE K-TO-12 PROGRAM

Technology and Livelihood Education and technical vocational specializations, consistent with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority training regulations (TESDA), will start at grade 7. TLE subjects such as Information and Communication Technology, Agriculture, Home Economics, Industrial Arts and Entrepreneurship are exploratory in in grade 7 and grade 8. Schools shall have the option to choose at least eight from the 24 TLE specializations to be offered. The courses that will be offered should be based on the local industry demands capability of the school and shall be expanded due to the demand and requirements of the local.

DIFFERENCE

IN

THE

TEACHING

OF

THE

TLE

K-TO-12

CURRICULUM TO THE PREVIOUS ONE

The TLE courses thought in the k-to-12 curriculum is most likely the same as the previous curriculum. But in the present case TLE will be more exploratory, more skills will be acquired and more knowledge. The students are free to choose whatever course he/she wants to take depending upon his/her interest. In K-to-12, the government wants to avoid the number of drop-outs in every school. The facilitator/21st century teachers should be more flexible and more knowledgeable about the trends. The 21st classroom will be learner centered so everything should be

understood and clear to the learner before proceeding to the next topic/lesson. The teachers should not let the learners stock into the four walls of the classroom the teacher should let the students to experience everything and let the student explore. K-to-12 program is a challenge to each and every one of us --- to the government, teachers, parents and most especially to the learners.