What is the “K to 12 Program”? 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.
What does this mean to Juan Dela Cruz? It means kindergarten is compulsory and 2 additional years for elementary and high school. More money is needed to be earned, more money to be spent on children’s education by parents.
I can sight three bad sides of this program; money, money and most importantly is money.
Regular Juan Dela Cruz is already burdened on having their children go through 10 years of studying just to finish high school. What do you think of adding 2 more years will do to them?
The government is already struggling in providing books, chairs, rooms, more and so forth , for students to get through high school. And they got the nerve in extending the agony of students for two years.
Private schools and universities need constant flow of students to provide quality infrastructure and education. Having this two year gap will make huge consequences on their facilities.
I can also sight three good sides of this program; preparing high school graduates for real work, lessening the stress on students, and most importantly is enhancing the quality of education.
Let’s face it! High percentage of high school graduates prefer to go look for a job than entering college. With the program, when students finish high school, they’re already 18 and did some-kind-of-vocational-course in high school. They’re somewhat ready for the real world.
Extending the time for the studying will lessen the stress experienced by students. Clustering all the lessons then learning all of them within just ten years is a difficult task. Trust me, it is.
The government’s main goal on having this program is enhancing the quality of education for Juan Dela Cruz. This can be done by adding more topics, lessons to the present curriculum thus giving more knowledge to students with less stress because of the additional two years. Students can learn more with less stress.
I’m not pro or against it since I’m one of the lucky people who were exempted from this program. This is just my take. So what do you think?
By: Margarita L. Salaria – Teacher III Limay National High School
