Example Internet Article on Philippines' K+12

Ilyza Chelsea D. Ylanan
J – Heroism

Start of K-12 basic education draws flak |
The Enhanced K-12 Basic Education Program, viewed as President Benigno Aquino III’s flagship program for the education sector, has begun implementation for school year (SY) 2011-2012 amid wide criticism from different sectors.
The Department of Education’s (DepEd) K-12program will add two more years to the basic education system. It will start in SY 2012-2013 for Grade 1 and first year high school students with the target of full implementation by SY 2018-2019.
For the present school year, the DepEd started theK-12’s “phase to phase” implementation with the universal kindergarten scheme, imposing a mandatory additional pre-school year for all five-year-olds who entered public schools. Some 1.2 million five-year-olds started kindergarten last June 6.
This means that those who enrolled in the universal kindergarten scheme will be taking six years of elementary (Grades 1 to 6), four years of junior high school (Grades 7 to 10) and two years more of senior high school (Grades 11 to 12), or 13 years of basic education.
Usual back-to-school woes compounded by K-12
While it may be too early to evaluate if the initial phase of the K-12 implementation is a success or a catastrophe, the DepEd’s arguments that the K-12 program will be the solution to yearly basic education woes drew much flak a week after the official start of classes.
For the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), the usual problem of shortages in classrooms, textbooks and other facilities were compounded by the DepEd’s “hasty” implementation of the K-12.
“For the 1.2 million kindergarten pupils alone, at a ratio of 1:25 per class on a desired single shift sessions, a total of 48, 000 new classrooms are needed,” according to ACT Secretary General France Castro.
The DepEd’s own estimate of classroom shortage before classes started this June was pegged at 150,000 classrooms.
“The haphazard implementation of K-12 and the inability of the government to resolve deficiencies in the number of teachers, classrooms, chairs, textbooks, comfort rooms will definitely affect the quality of education in our country,” Castro said.
According to ACT’s assessment, because of the universal kindergarten scheme, shortages worsened with more teachers needed from last year’s 54,060 to 103,599 this year; classrooms from 61,343 to 152,569; chairs from 816,290 to 13,225,572; water and sanitation from 113,051 to 151,084.
Even though the DepEd increased its budget to P200 billion to augment programs for a “seamless transition” from the old system to the K-12, Castro noted that it is still not enough to meet the United Nation’s standard of an allotment of six percent from the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
“Even the government admits that the budget it has allotted is insufficient. Among ASEAN countries, the Philippines is just slightly ahead of Laos when it comes to government spending for education, the rest of ASEAN give more funds to education.”
URL address: http://www.thepoc.net/thepoc-features/politi-ko/politiko-features/12484-start-of-k-12-basic-education-draws-flak.html Author’s Name:
Sarah Katrina Maramag
Date of publication:
June 17, 2011 (Friday)
Webpage / Website:
www.thepoc.net