12 Years?

(Photo from Sidney Snoeck) Well that's pretty obvious okay?

The other day, I was listening to this radio show and the topic was about the upcoming 12-year education system in the Philippines. I’ve heard so many comments, most of the other listeners were against it and a few were very willing to support the program.

Personally, I disagree with it. It’s not that I do not like the 12-year program, I know it’ll mean a lot for the next generations of this nation but I do not think we, the government and the Filipino citizens, are financially ready for that.

The Department of Education has proposed numerous solutions for the rebuttal of some critics. The most clear points are:

1. The proposed program will help the Filipino students to be more molded in their crafts.
2. More years to study simply means a wider range of knowledge to be taught to the youth.
3. Some subjects, especially in Grade 11 and 12, will give basic information to the outgoing high school students about their chosen course in college. Thus making them prepared and legitimate to work after high school.

Okay so this is it.

• Fiscal problems. With our present education system which allots six years in elementary and four years in high school, only a few are lucky to graduate and to continue studying in college. Most of the students in high school prefer working even before graduating due to financial problems.
• We lack schools. The representative of the DepEd in that radio show said that this wouldn’t be a very big problem because they are buildingmore schools to accommodate more students. But let me ask you, do you think in a span of two years, you can easily produce thousands of schools? If ever possible, do you think my third point will not cause any difficulties in their solution?
• We lack teachers. Thousands of future teachers graduate every year but many choose to work in other fields due to the very low salary given to this noble profession. If I’m not mistaken, some representatives in the congress are contemplating this new bill regarding the wage increase for educators. We all know that this will take a long time to be labeled as a law. Too long for the 12-year system which will be implemented sooner.

You see, we are not yet ready. No matter how many solutions the government will propose, as long as these present problems aren’t solved, we can’t go any further than the contemporary system we have.

It’s nice to know that there is progress occurring. However, imagine, in just one year, they planned all of this. Do you think this will even be as efficient as what other countries have? Remember we’re different from them. We need not to conform ourselves just because we have a different arrangement of education. Instead, why not solve the lack of books, classrooms, teachers and the quality of teaching? It’s better than hastily adding another two years. 

The proposal sounds great but again the Philippines is not ready for that. Not now. In the future maybe.

Posted in: education,politics,si