Primer: What You Should Know about the K to 12 Senior High School

The year 2016 has marked the introduction of the new senior high school

system in the Philippines, spearheaded by the Department of Education

(DepEd) Secretary, Bro. Armin Luistro. This education system allows students

to select specialized tracks they opt to enroll themselves with in schools of their

own choice. In order for everyone to fully understand and determine the

opportunities provided by this new system, Banal-Formoso (2016) has made a

brief overview of the program which revolutionized the country’s quality of

education.

The K-12 Program consists of the Kindergarten level and twelve (12)

consecutive years of basic education that DepEd has been gradually

implementing since 2012 under Republic Act No. 10533. With its continuous

progress this 2016, it now features the new Senior High School (SHS) level,

which refers to the two additional years, Grades 11 and 12, where students are

exposed to new subjects that will introduce them to their desired career

pathways.

Banal-Formoso (2016) stated that taking the senior high school level is

not obligatory, yet students cannot receive a high school diploma, and instead

will only receive a Junior High School (JHS) Certificate upon completion of
Grade 10. Hereby, students will miss out on the opportunity to enter college

and learn new skills that will qualify themselves for employment.

Many people are wondering as to why some private schools have let

Fourth Year high school students graduate this year and be able to enter

college in the next school year, deviating from the K-12 Program’s requirement

to enter Grades 11 and 12. But as asserted by Banal-Formoso (2016), the

DepEd has allowed private institutions to do this since some of them are

already applying the international curriculum and have recalibrated their

education system to include SHS specializations prior to K-12 implementation.

This assures that universities will still have freshman enrollees in the school

year 2016-2017.

For additional information, Banal-Formoso (2016) claimed that “every

year, 500,000 high school graduates do not go to college.” These individuals

are labeled by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) as “lifelong

learners”, which are encouraged to apply for scholarships and continue their

studies.

Last October 2015, approximately 1.5 million students have

preregistered for Grade 11. The DepEd has built 200 stand-alone public SHS

buildings, and assured that only 25 percent of the country’s public high

schools will not offer the program due to lack of available land for building new

facilities. With this, some incoming Grade 11 students then prefer going to
private senior high schools, which are sufficiently available in most areas of the

country (Formoso, 2016). These private schools were first carefully assessed by

the DepEd and permits must be secured for them to officially offer the SHS

program if proven that they are capable enough of providing the SHS

education.

Senior High School education remains free for all students who choose to

study in public schools. In private schools, tuition costs may vary but the

government has offered financial assistance for those who are interested in

applying. Grade 10 completers from public schools who want to enroll in

private schools are automatically entitled for monetary help through the SHS

Voucher program, in which P12.2 billion of the government’s funds have been

allocated (Department of Budget and Management, 2016). Those coming from

private schools are also given a chance to apply for the voucher.

The DepEd, although having granted more than 50,000 vouchers, has

reopened their online applications to give more students the chance to avail the

voucher. The voucher value in the National Capital Region (NCR) is worth

P22,500 (for public schools) or P18,000 (for private schools); P20,000 for

urbanized cities outside NCR; and P7,500 for other municipalities. Formoso

(2016) also stated that students can use their vouchers for two successive

school years only, so if one fails Grade 11, the voucher will be invalid for Grade

12.
 The DepEd assures parents that the SHS Voucher Program will remain

stable, as it is already written in the law and cannot be easily slashed off of it.

According to Banal-Formoso (2016), the spirit of this program is focused on the

needs of the students, and it does not look on one’s grades in order to be

entitled with. Whenever students call for support, the government will do its

best efforts to financially assist them no matter what.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Banal-Formoso, C. (2016). Primer: What you should know about the K to 12

senior high school. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved from
https://newsinfo.
inquirer.net/782541/primer-senior-high-rolls-out-k-12-plan-on-monday.

Bacarra, R. V. (2016). Why the K-12 program will benefit the Filipino youth.
Lifestyle.INQ. Retrieved from https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/227819/why-
the-k-12-program-will-benefit-the-filipino-youth/.

Tucay, M. (2015). K-12: Who loses, who profits. Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Retrieved from https://opinion.inquirer.net/85551/k-12-who-loses-who-
profits.