By Ronn Joshua C. Bautista
THREE years after Congress passed Republic Act 10533, or otherwise known as the K to 12 Program, critics coming from students, teachers and parents have lashed out against the supposedly ill-crafted law adding two more years to the country’s high-school curriculum.
Five petitions from various alliances of lawmakers, academics and activists have sought justice at the Supreme Court claiming that the new law will, among other issues, aggravate the financial situation of Filipino families and force millions to drop out of school.
“The K to 12 Program is no ordinary government program. It is set to redefine access to education, especially for the poor who must spend for additional years of education. It unduly burdens the exercise of the human right to education,” according to the third petition filed by the National Union of People’s Lawyers.
The law mandates the creation of “senior high school” (SHS) year levels on top of the currently existing 10-year Philippine basic education curriculum. The Department of Education’s (DepEd) main argument has revolved around improving the competency and global competitiveness of the nation’s graduates.
However, as enticing as it may sound, Filipino homes are just not prepared for two more years of school financially. Beyond perennial shortages and backlogs on classroom, books and teachers, lawmakers have sounded the alarm on possible massive drop outs due to financial woes in the following year, when SHS will receive its first batch of students.
According to a study done by youth solon Kabataan Party-List (KPL), students entering SHS will need to shell out as much as P100,000 to P200,000 in the next two years. Computing the food and transportation allowance of average students of P100 to P150 for 200 school days, families will need to produce around P20,000 to P30,000 annually. Meanwhile, calculating the cost of school supplies and other miscellaneous expenses, such as uniforms and workbooks, based on Department of Trade and Industry data and case studies from Araullo High School, KPL estimates another P10,000 burden for parents.
Under the current setup, two more years of school means thousands more in expenses. And under the K to 12 Program, which requires students to choose one of three SHS tracks in their curriculum, things are about to get more pricey.
Among the three tracks that SHS student may choose is the Technical-Vocational-Livelihood track, which uses equipment such as nail kits and welding materials. Based on Ramon Magsaysay High School data for Grades 9 and 10 class requirements, tools and equipment to be used for this vocational track will cost around P12,000.
On top of this, due to persistent shortages in classrooms and teachers in the country, a large part of the youth population will bear even more expenses when they are forced to enroll in private SHS.
Based on DepEd data, not all public schools will have SHS programs. In fact, less than half, or 3,839, out of 7,976 public high school nationwide will implement SHS courses, according to the DepEd’s list of K to 12 ready schools.
The department reported that there are more than 1.6 million students bound to take Grade 11 next year, and should schools that pledged they will implement SHS courses comply, DepEd schools can only accommodate around 800,000 students.
As such, families that do not have access to public SHS like those living in Makati City, Caloocan and Parañaque will be forced to enroll their children in private schools whose tuition for SHS ranges from P25,000 to P70,000. While the DepEd has promised a voucher system to subsidize these costs, these vouchers can only provide from P8,750 to P22,000.
Despite overwhelming costs not just from the government but also for the Filipino people, the DepEd remains firm with implementing the K to 12 Program.
“The Department of Education (DepEd) reiterates that the national government is on track in its preparations for the implementation of the K to 12 program, which includes Senior High School,” DepEd said in a statement regarding the Supreme Court petitions filed against the program.
But with 10 million Filipinos without a stable or sufficient source of income and 25 million under the poverty line, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, one can only wonder if the K-12 program will have any graduates at all in 2017.
In the end, before DepEd attempts to improve the country’s basic education curriculum at par with supposed international standards, the government needs to make sure if the youth can enroll at all. At the current state of things, education—more importantly, public education—has come with a hefty price tag. And what good is any touted enhancement of education if the youth cannot access it in the first place?
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Ronn Joshua C. Bautista is a student of the University of the Philippines. He wrote this while on an internship with the Businessmirror’s sister publication Philippine Graphic. Like his story online via the BusinessMirror Millennials Universe (BMMU) Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Millennial-Universe/435594193285671. Follow BMMU on Twitter via @millennial_U or Instagram (type Millennial Universe). Email comments or story to millennialuniverse@yahoo.com and the editor at dennis.estopace@gmail.com.