Have a pleasant day, esteemed members of the audience.

Today, I stand before you to argue

against the proposal that members of Congress in the Philippines should be required to have at least a
bachelor's degree.

First, let me state that having a college education is of course valuable and beneficial, but it is
not the only indicator of capability and intelligence. In the Philippines, there are many examples of
successful and capable leaders who have achieved great things without a college degree. Imposing a
college degree requirement on Congress would limit the pool of potential candidates, and could exclude
many qualified individuals who may not have had the opportunity or means to obtain a college
education.

Additionally, the Philippines faces unique challenges and complexities, including poverty, high
unemployment, and a lack of access to education. These issues must be addressed by individuals who
have lived through these challenges, understand them firsthand, and who have the passion and drive to
improve the lives of their fellow citizens. Therefore, it would be unfair to exclude individuals from
running for Congress because they do not have a college degree.

Furthermore, it is important to remember that a college education does not necessarily prepare
one for the responsibilities of being a member of Congress. The job of a member of Congress requires a
unique set of skills and experience, including the ability to work well with others, to understand and
navigate the political landscape, and to effectively represent the interests of one's constituents. These
skills are not exclusively developed through a college education, and can be acquired through other
means such as professional experience, community involvement, and military service.

Moreover, there is a risk that the lack of education of a certain group of people, might lead to
issues of representation in the legislative body, that could affect and reflect the policies, decisions and
bills that cater to the needs of those people. In this case, people that do not have a college degree
would be most affected.

In conclusion, I argue that it would be unfair and unwise to impose a college degree
requirement on members of Congress, especially in the Philippines. A college education is not the only
indicator of intelligence or capability, and it does not necessarily prepare one for the responsibilities of
being a member of Congress. To limit the pool of potential candidates to those with a college degree
would be detrimental to the diversity and effectiveness of our government, and could exclude many
qualified and capable individuals from serving their fellow citizens.
We the opposing side disagree on the implementation of the congress having at least bachelor degree at
it claims that there is no other person other than the degree holder a degree holder has the ability to
gain more opportunities than those who do not. On the other hand, not only those who have the degree
are qualified to gain opportunities, there are still chances for those who are undergraduates or those
who did not finish college. In the field of politics, there are some people that do not have a bachelors
degree but managed to get in. Let us take for example president Ferdinand “bongbong” marcos, he is
one talented and intelligent public figure that has been in political field from 1992 up to the present day,
he graduated from oxford university acquiring a special diploma but not a bachelor degree. But still, this
intelligent person that has been in politics, there are some contribution that had a great effect on
people. He composed 20 bills and co-author 90 more house bills, these laws made a great help to some
sectors, like agriculture, infrastructure, human right and many more.

The constitution had already set forth certain qualification and disqualification for people who inspire to
join government or to be elected in the public service, to serve filipino people. In the case of those who
wish to be elected, such qualification is set out to the constitution, what we came to understand is that
we are looking for the one who is more deserving and qualifies as a leader of this country not needing
bachelor degree. As a national statistic show, almost anyone can get a degree but not everyone can do a
job well that being said, you can certainly be successful without a bachelor’s degree because what we
get person qualified mostly is their skills and talents, you also don’t need to go to college to become an
expert in an area. Personal and professional experience coupled with online resources can give you
expertise in your field that a college degree cannot. In college, you don’t learn tenacity like you do from
the fails and successes of real-life experiences.
Why this petition matters

Started by STOP K to 12 Alliance

We urge all Filipino students, teachers, parents, concerned citizens

and organizations to join the call to immediately stop President
Noynoy Aquino’s K to 12 program.

Under K-12, the Filipino youth will spend 1 year in kindergarten, 6

years in elementary, 4 years in junior high school and additional 2
years in senior high school. The additional 2 years in senior high will
be devoted to “specializing” in academic, sports, arts and design, or
technical-vocational livelihood subjects.

In the face of its full implementation in June 2016, we are steadfast in

our call to stop the K-12 program because of the following points:

1. K-12 will increase joblessness and depress wages, reinforce

labor export

We believe that K-12 is not a solution to unemployment in the

country.

No less than the government says that one aim of K-12 is to have
“employable” Filipino youths graduate at the age of 18—the legal age
to enter into a labor contract. Joining K-12 graduates to the ocean of
unemployed and underemployed (which now stands at 11.2 million)
and bringing down the age of the employable pool will increase
joblessness in the country and lower the value of Filipino labor.
K-12 will also only produce more Mary Jane Velosos from the ranks of
the unemployed and lowly-paid workers. At least 596,000 are expected
to take K-12’s technical-vocational livelihood track. K-12 is engineered
to serve the government’s labor export policy, its stop-gap solution to
severe joblessness in the country. A closer look at the program will
tell that K-12 skills or knowledge are actually meant for overseas
employment. Today, at least 6,092 Filipinos leave the country to work
abroad.

Also, the mere nationwide rollout of K-12 will displace 78,000 teaching
and non-teaching personnel and will serve the rampant
contractualization in the education sector.

2. K-12 will only bring additional burdens to Filipino youth and

their parents

We believe that K-12 will only make students and their parents bear
the brunt of the high costs of education and annual increases in tuition
and other school fees. K-12 will further privatize and commercialize
education.

At least 850,000 senior high school students are expected to study in

state universities and private schools offering senior high, where
education is not free. Tuition for senior high in the Polytechnic
University of the Philippines, a state university, costs P16,000. On the
other hand, tuition fees for senior high in private schools range from
P22,500 to P35,000 and even up to P70,000.

Because K-12 graduates can immediately start working, the

government renders college education as non-essential, a luxury or
reserved only for advanced studies. This will only serve the
government’s policy of reducing, to a complete cut off of, public
spending for state universities and colleges. The government will all
the more abandon tertiary education to businessmen owning private
schools, who even now are raking in billions in profits from annual
increases in tuition and other school fees.
These will only increase the number of drop outs both in elementary
and secondary levels and tertiary level which currently stand at 4
million and 2.3 million respectively.

3. K-12 will worsen current education woes

We believe that K-12 is not the solution to low-quality education. This

program will aggravate instead the country’s education crisis.

Education experts in an in-country study “Length of School Cycle and

the Quality of Education” concluded that there is “no basis” behind the
claim that lengthening the education cycle will improve quality of
education.

Even without K-12, the government’s budgetary allocation for

education could not even address the severe lack of classrooms,
teachers, textbooks, desks, sanitation and water facilities, and other
basic needs. Touting K-12 as a solution to the poor quality of
education is actually a feeble attempt to cover up a more glaring fact:
that low-quality of education is a result of the government’s grave
insufficient allocation of funds and foreign-dictated policies.

Clearly, K-12 will bring no benefits, to the Filipino youth, parents,

teachers and workers whether in the short or long term. What we need
is a nationalist and pro-people educational system, one that serves the
Filipino people’s aspirations for full human and national development.

STOP THE K TO 12 PROGRAM!

SCRAP THE ENHANCED BASIC EDUCATION ACT OF 2013!

EDUCATION IS A RIGHT!

FIGHT FOR A NATIONALIST AND PRO-PEOPLE EDUCATION!

Abolishment of K-12: A
new vision of the system
of education.

Josh Russel Sibiran Dumale

·

Follow
4 min read

Sep 20, 2023

Josh Russel Siriban Dumale STEM12 SJ-SJ2s

There have been news circulating the media that all of a sudden,
President BBM and the DepEd are linking to finally abolish the K-12
curriculum. President BBM’s revision in the educational sector is
moving on from the senior high school system leaving many mixed
opinions about this sudden decision.
The K-12 curriculum’s purpose is to provide a more structural
education to preparate upcoming college students. By adding an extra
2 years to the secondary educational level, the K-12 curriculum gives
more time for students to be more college ready or even more so, to be
work ready. Having all these advantages, is the purpose of the K-12
curriculum even achieved?

A study conducted by Almerino et. al (2020) have found that “The

introduction of the program had mixed remarks. Several groups have
strongly opposed the implementation of the program due to their
expectations with the current adjustment to the curriculum. The
competencies of the senior high school students in the Philippines have
had concerns with their mismatch with the expectations set in the
program.”. This means that until now, the K-12 curriculum has been
raising concerns in the educational system.

With the K-12 curriculum being implemented, many students have

been facing many challenges that are supposed to be unnecessary.
People have described the K-12 as a hassle. People have even suggested
that they barely have not even felt the impact of the K-12 program
causing dissatisfactions and distress. Having two more years of already
a tedious 10-year secondary education have left the students
academically exhausted, placed the parents in a financial burden, and
leaving DepEd with more expenses to cover for the additional 2 school
years of the secondary level. These reasons strongly argue for the
abolishment of the K-12 curriculum in order for the educational sector
to recover and look forward to a new vision.

As the K-12 program is currently being practiced, a study by Pulse Asia

research inc. in 2022 found that out of 1,200 respondents, 25% of the
respondents were “somewhat dissatisfied” with the current K-12
system while 19% were “Truly dissatisfied”. This meant that 44% of the
respondents were dissatisfied with the current implementation of the
K-12 program. Considering that there was a 16% rise from their last
survey, which 28% respondents were not satisfied shows that the K-12
program has been becoming a liability to the educational system
overtime (Gatchalian, Et al, 2019/2022).

One of causes of these dissatisfactions came from a study conducted by

DepEd Division of Aurora in 2019 have found that most grade 11
students in within 8 municipalities of the province of Aurora,
“struggled to keep up with the implementation of the K-12 curriculum”.
From being unable to provide materials and equipment provided for
their students, to affecting their students’ family income, and to even
encountering different problems no matter what strand the students
take (Barcelo, 2019).

Looking at the damages of the implementation of the K-12 program

could affect the whole country’s economy negatively. “Considering that
already more than 20 million Filipinos are financially unstable, adding
2 more years could be detrimental to the education of poor families,
meaning it would be an indirect assault to the people’s right to
education” (Llego, n.d.).

We still cannot de-emphasize the vision of the K-12 program, where

the K-12 curriculum actually helps the students become well oriented,
hardworking, resilient, and overall amazing students. “The program
actually has an advantage in enhancing students’ development,
competitiveness and even workforce readiness. However, the study
also concluded that the increased financial burden on families, limited
job opportunities for Technical vocational livelihood strand graduates,
and the risk of brain drain should be taken into account.” (Deysolong,
2023). The K-12 program has no real advantage in the educational
system when its downsides already contradict the positive effects. This
alone, in terms of career path, is one of the main problems that the K-
12 curriculum has been facing.

In conclusion, K-12 curriculum has many flaws in its implementation.

It simply just doesn’t fit with the current state of the country. The
economic state of the Philippines simply cannot continue to run the K-
12 curriculum as a mandatory system in education as it would be a
struggle for the DepEd to continue to provide this program. Abolishing
the K-12 curriculum will be the most beneficial procedure for the
success of the education of the Philippines. Though the most practical
way is abolishing the K-12 curriculum, I would suggest a new vision
from the DepEd can also be useful. An alternative to this is by making
the senior high school level an optional for students, wherein the
people who want to seek higher secondary level of knowledge, or
people who are undecided about what they want for college can take
the senior high school program.

References

Almerino P., et al. (2020). Evaluating the Academic Performance of K-

12 Students in the Philippines: A Standardized Evaluation Approach,
6–8

Deysolong, Josephine. (2023). Assessing the Effectiveness of the K to

12 Program: Examining the Impact of Senior High School
Implementation in the Philippines. Equity & Excellence in Education.
10.6084/m9.figshare.23008412.

Llego M., (m.d.). 10 Reasons Why the K to 12 Program Should Be

Suspended

Barcelo C., (2019). Problems in the Implementation of K-12

Curriculum by Grade 11 Students in Aurora Province, Philippines,
121/124

Sen. Gatchalian W., et al., (2019–2022). Comparative satisfaction with

the k-12 program, 10
 Three Practical Benefits of the Philippines' K to 12
Curriculum
K12 Philippines

The implementation of K-12 curriculum in the country drew negative reactions from
various societal groups. Since 2011, critics have been very vocal on their primary
concerns. They insist the government isn’t yet ready for this new system and that
this is more of additional burden to students and their parents.
Despite calls to suspend the program, the government remained firm saying this
new educational system offers opportunities for Filipino students and the national
economy.
For its part, the Department of Education (DepEd) stresses that the country is
prepared for a big shift in education system. In fact, it has worked to fulfill the gaps
on the number of classrooms, teachers, and textbooks. Also, it has finished the
planning phases along with stakeholders.
But what does K-12 scheme really has to offer to students?
To prove that K-12 system is more than just adding two more years to high school,
below are three of the many practical benefits of schooling under a 13-year
education cycle:
1. Preparedness for tertiary learning. With adaptation of K-12 scheme, students are expected to
graduate at age a bit older than past graduates’. This is an advantage, according to DepEd, as
graduates will be considered young adults. Hence, they will be more equipped to deal with
much higher level of learning as they enter college education.
2. Readiness to join the workforce. Unlike the old system, K-12 does not compel each student
to take college after completing Senior High School (SHS). In fact, this scheme empowers
students to make a choice on their own. They may not pursue college education especially if
they have chosen a track other than academic track. The good thing is SHS graduates will be
equipped with skills (through electives) that will make them good at certain field(s).
3. Skill competency in the global job market. K-12 system aims to improve Filipino students’
mathematical, scientific, and linguistic competence. With the new curriculum, DepEd promised
to offer higher quality education through tracks. Each track will give students enough time to
master a field and enhance their skills. In the end, K-12 graduates will become globally
competitive and are set to obtain spot in the stiff labor market.
The government believes that K to 12 curriculum in the Philippines will put Filipino
students at par with the rest of the world. Truly, investing in education is the key
toward reaching national growth and development.

Originally published in K-12 Philippines.

Answer:
1. Issue: The K to 12 education system has been a
controversial topic in many countries, with some arguing that
it is unnecessary and should be abolished.
2. Claim: K to 12 should not be abolished.
3. Argument: The K to 12 education system is important
because it provides students with a more comprehensive
education, better prepares them for college and the workforce,
and promotes a more equitable and inclusive education
system. The additional years of schooling in K to 12 allow
students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving
skills, as well as knowledge in specialized areas such as
technical-vocational education. Moreover, the K to 12 system
provides students with a smoother transition to college and
the workforce, as they are better prepared for the demands
and challenges of higher education and the job market. Lastly,
the K to 12 system promotes a more equitable and inclusive
education system by providing opportunities for all students,
regardless of their socio-economic background, to receive a
quality education.
4.Evidence:
According to the Department of Education in the Philippines,
the K to 12 system has been successful in improving the
quality of education, with more students passing the college
entrance exams and being employed after graduation.
A study conducted by the World Bank showed that the K to 12
system has led to a more equitable education system, with
increased access to education for students in rural and remote
areas.
A survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority
showed that 71.2% of K to 12 graduates are employed,
compared to 59.7% of high school graduates.
5. Counter argument: Some argue that the K to 12 system is
unnecessary and places an additional burden on families, as
they have to pay for an additional two years of schooling.
6. Rebuttal: While it is true that the K to 12 system may be an
added expense for some families, the benefits of the additional
years of schooling outweigh the costs. Moreover, the
government provides financial assistance and scholarship
programs for students who are unable to afford the additional
years of schooling. Ultimately, the K to 12 system is an
investment in the future of students and the country, as it
provides a more comprehensive and equitable education
system that better prepares students for success in college
and the workforce.

VERA FILES FACT CHECK:

DepEd to revise, NOT abolish K
to 12
False

By VERA FILES FACT CHECK

FEB 02, 2023 8:26 PM

Two days after Vice President and Education

Secretary Sara Duterte delivered the Basic
Education Report (BER) 2023 on Jan. 30, a
YouTube video falsely claimed that she, along
with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos,
abolished the K to 12 education system.
The 8-minute and 35-second video posted on
Feb. 1, carried the headline:

“KAKAPASOK LANG GRABE! PBBM at VPSARA

NILUSOB ang DEPED, K-12 PROGRAM ni PNOY
OFFICIAL ng TINANGGAL (JUST IN EXTREME!
PBBM and VPSARA BARGED into DEPED,
PNOY’S K-12 PROGRAM OFFICIALLY
REMOVED)?!”
The thumbnail also featured photos of Marcos,
made to look like he was holding a document,
and Duterte juxtaposed with images of late
former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III
who signed the program into law in 2013 and
former vice president Leni Robredo. It also
showed a file photo of the facade of the
Department of Education (DepEd) building.

The thumbnail bore the text:

“SAWAKAS! TANGGAL NA K-12 PROGRAM

BIGLAANG UTOS NG PALASYO (FINALLY!
NOW REMOVED K-12 PROGRAM. SUDDEN
ORDER FROM THE PALACE) CONFIRMED!
GOODBYE K-12!.”
This is not true. Duterte announced during the
presentation of the BER 2023 that the DepEd
will revise the K to 12 program, not abolish it.
“We will revise the K to 12 Curriculum to make
them more responsive to our aspiration as a
nation, to develop lifelong learners who are
imbued with 21st-century skills, discipline, and
patriotism,” she said. This part was left out in
the false video.
 At the 2:59-minute mark, the video only flashed
the portion where Duterte talked about the
findings of the ongoing K to 12 curriculum
review, the importance of upscaling teachers
and addressing the literacy issue among
others. This clip was shown with the text
“GOODNEWS! K-12 PROGRAM TUTULDUKAN
NA! PRES BBM at VPSARA UMAKSYON NA (K-
12 PROGRAM WILL BE OVER. PRES BBM and
VPSARA ALREADY TOOK ACTION)!”

The video began with audio clips from a Jan.

31 Bombo Radyo Philippines news report about
Marcos leading a groundbreaking
ceremony under his housing program in
Quezon City and commending the DepEd’s
work related to the BER 2023. There was no
mention of scrapping the K to 12 curriculum.

Aside from presenting accomplishments as

well as problems faced by the education sector
when she unveiled the BER 2023, Duterte also
launched the MATATAG agenda that aims to:

 “MAke the curriculum relevant to produce

competent, job-ready, active and responsible
citizens.”
 “TAke steps to accelerate the delivery of basic
education services and provision of
facilities.”
 “TAke good care of learners by promoting
learner well-being, inclusive education, and a
positive learning environment.”
 “Give support to teachers to teach better.”

The video posted by YouTube channel BANAT

NEWS TV (created on Dec. 26, 2015) has
30,549 views as of writing. Netizens also
reposted the link on Facebook.

Other inaccurate information on the K to 12

program has also been fact-checked by VERA
Files. (Read related story VERA FILES FACT
CHECK: Posts FALSELY claim Tulfo abolished
K to 12 program)