At the height of the implementation of K-to-12 and initial kick off for the opening of senior high schools in the country, criticisms on the preparedness of the Department of Education had for most number of times been laid again and again.

            During the Aquino administration, our country lacked an estimated 113,000 classrooms as stated in the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016. In its 2014 updated and published version, it was reported by the DepEd that the gap had been nearly trimmed down to 66, 800, thus, meeting about 60 percent of the total classroom backlog. However, the implementation of the curriculum could again raise the shortage by an outstanding percentage as according to DepEd, every additional year of basic education requires 20, 000 to 28,000 public classrooms. Therefore, an additional 40,000 to 56, 000 classroom shortage can be expected for implementing senior high school. Furthermore, the program will also require an additional 60, 000 to 82, 000 teachers and printing of a minimum of 60 million textbooks.

            In some school observations done by Bro. Armin Luistro with current Education Secretary Leonor Briones, he acclaimed that 2016 was one of the best school openings by considering that the problems they had seen were surmountable.

            But what does he really mean by surmountable?

            The reality is, what they have seen was only the tip of the iceberg. More so, it’s unreasonable to take the whole of our country by having seen only a part of the metro. Everyday, students struggle for a conducive learning facility with enough number of teachers and learning materials. Good enough if these are the only issues that confront them, but think of their dilemma should they have to transfer to another school in search of an institution that is senior high school ready. Indeed, that is much burden for their families.

            Take the National Capital Region for example. A remarkable 9 out of 10 schools which offer senior high are private and only 2 out of 10 public schools are senior high ready. These are serious problems of the K-to-12 program that need to be addressed.

 If the daily subsistence of a Filipino family was already a problem to them, what more can an education this expensive be?

           

By: Lourdes L. Manguiob | Teacher III | Samal National High School