A Review & Synthesis on the Implementation of K to 12 Program in the

Philippines to the New Normal Settings

In 2012 the Philippines launched its K to 12 Program, a comprehensive reform of its

primary education. The K to 12 Program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic
education (six years of primary education, four years of Junior High School, and two
years of Senior High School [SHS]) to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and
skills, develop lifelong learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills
development, employment, and entrepreneurship. Through this reform, the Philippines is
catching up with global secondary education standards and attaching a high value to
kindergarten. The education system's structure, curricula, and philosophy are undergoing
reform and improvement. The critical points of the new policy are "preparation" for higher
education, "eligibility" for entering domestic and overseas higher educational institutions, and
immediate "employability" on graduating, all leading toward a "holistically developed Filipino.”
This policy appears admirable and timely, but it faces some pedagogical and socio-economic
problems. These include a lack of budget, classrooms, school supplies, and teachers. But, if we
did not start, then when?

The Department of Education (DepEd) recently announced its plan to review the current
K-to-12 curriculum because of the apparent congestion in the learning competencies. According
to reports, the 2022 version of the new curriculum was released at the end of 2021 and applied
year. The review is being undertaken to relieve students of overwhelming requirements in all
subjects.
The DepEd also admitted that 15,000 learning competencies had been removed last
March from the former curriculum, reducing the number to less than ten competencies per
quarter per grade level.
What the DepEd isn’t telling us is that the curriculum currently being implemented and
followed in all Philippine schools, both public and private, was based on the Essential Learning
Competencies (MELCs), where 5,689 learning competencies were removed from the 14,171
learning competencies that the former curriculum had, resulting in a reduction of 40.15 percent.
The percentage of removed learning competencies is an unbelievably high 93 percent for
English, 70 percent for Filipino, and 52 percent for Araling Panlipunan. This means the students'
competencies that needed to be learned and mastered had already been cut by half.
Because of these nonfat MELCs, the number of competencies taught in the subject of
English in one school year has been reduced to only ten competencies for both Grades 6 and
10. Only 15 competencies will be conducted in Grade 5, 22 in Grade 8, and 23 in Grade 10.
If the DepEd continues with its plan to reduce further, and undermine what is already a
spayed and castrated curriculum, what will be left for teachers to teach and students to learn?
Changing the curriculum also means the self-learning modules procured at great expense by
the DepEd would have to be changed again, thereby allowing already rich publishers and
printers to become even more prosperous and opening wide the floodgates to the influx of even
more error-riddled modules.
The DepEd must be called to account for this final straw that will surely break the
camel’s back. The DepEd’s only reason is to teach Filipino schoolchildren the correct
knowledge, skills, and values to learn and grow up not being stupid and ignorant.

REFERENCES:
1. https://k12philippines.com/
2.https://www.ijires.org/administrator/components/com_jresearch/files/publications/
IJIRES_1638_FINAL.pdf
3. Andrade, Jeannette I., (2022, June 2024). Officials Back Review of K12 Program. Philippine
Daily Inquirer. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1615780/officials-back-review-of-k-12-program