Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Philippines’ Plan to Add Two Years of School Rankles, and Not Just Students

Razan Al-Tartir
Dania Adra
English 203
OCT . 20, 2015

                K-12 program represents an enhancement to the basic education of Philippines, which is really essential, however Micaella Serrano calls the government “thieves” because in her point of view addition of 2 years to  basic education system will force her parents to pay the fees of extra 2 years which they can’t afford it will also deprive her from working to help her father who is a welder, but let us face the bitter truth the basic education system in Philippines is really shabby this due to little instructional time and length of the learning process which is only 10 years, this is proven by the poor performance of Philippines student in international examinations, also providing extra 2 years will allow students enough time to mature mentally, psychologically and physiologically, so that even if they do not want to enter college rather take part in the workforce they will be 18 years old, the legal age at which they are permitted to work. K-12 system offers the opportunity for high school students to apply to universities that are abroad, which before K-12 system they considered Philippines diploma is not fulfilling the requirements of admission because they are under age and the educational system is weak, this gives them opportunities of high salary jobs on a Sliver plate, so that although unemployment will increase in the current time but on the long run it will dramatically decrease, also working abroad provide the country the foreign currencies, and the issue that university professors will lose their jobs can be solved by allowing them to teach the 11 and 12 grades in schools.
“We want to give our young citizens a better chance at a decent life,” said Elvin Uy, a Philippine education official  there is a huge misunderstanding that the basic education provided in schools is a preparatory phase for university, as people ask why give priority to high school graduates that want to go to college? this idea is a huge misinterpretation for the need of K-12 system, which aims to provide education at the optimum pace rather than a compressed system of 10 years, which counteracts the process of given whole information and giving time for students to stdy it, practice it and do tests on it.





Ms.Reyes said “It’s not necessary to add two more years,” she said. “It will just be two more years of loitering, and we can’t afford that.” So why basic education should be 12 years, why universities ask for this in their admission requirements?, if Philippines are capable in 10 years to provide the same amount of information, skill, practice and testing that others need 12 years to do so, why to lengthen the process of education and add to the financial problems of the parents, as these 2 years will not be free, the government will not cover the tuition fees, so parents have to put aside some of their income to cover fees of education, food transportation and books. But  as the students currently suffer from lack of books, professional teachers, space, equipments, why when they even suffer from stinky roads the government want to extend the process of education for 2 extra years?, people believe that they should solve these problems first before applying K-12 scheme which will result in no freshmen students for 2 whole years so rate of unemployment will increase, as college and university professors will not have students to teach for 2 whole years, also the rate of drop outs by students will significantly increase, resulting young adolescents following the wrong path which really makes the issue even worse. The good question is the problem with the length of basic education phase or with the content?, obviously with the content, so what Philippines actually needs is better education not longer one.

             







Work Cited

 .  “Philippines’ Plan to Add Two Years of School Rankles, and Not Just Students”.  New York Times.  OCT. 12, 2015.  OCT. 20, 2015.



1 comment: