Page | 2 I. Bac ground Enhancing the quality of basic education in the Philippines is urgentand critica l.

Due to that, one of the discussions of DepEd which incurredlast October 2010 is to enhance the basic education program of thecountry in a manner that is leas t disruptive to the current curriculum,most affordable to government and familie s, and aligned withinternational practice through the K-12 policy. The poor qual ity of basic education is reflected in the low achievementscores of Filipino stu dents. Many students who finish basic education donot possess sufficient mastery of basic competencies. One reason is thatstudents do not get adequate instructi onal time or time on tas . This quality of education is reflected in the inadequ ate preparation of high school graduates for the world of wor or entrepreneursh ip orhigher education. High school graduates also do not possess the basiccompet encies or emotional maturity essential for the world of wor . 1 While the availability of economic opportunities contributes to this, italso il lustrates the mismatch in the labor and education mar ets. TheWorld Ban Philipp ines S ills Report in 2009 reveals, based on a survey of employers, serious gaps in critical s ills of graduates such as problem-solving, initiative and creativ ity, and, to a lesser extent, gaps in jobspecific technical s ills. The enhanced K-12 program, or the Department of Education s(DepEd) proposal to overhaul the ba sic and secondary educationcurriculum by adding two more years to the system is arguably one of the most drastic and controversial programs of the Aquinoadminis tration. The program is proposed to start in school year 2012-2013 for Grade 1 a nd first year high school students with the target of full implementation by SY 2018-2019.According to SEAMEO Innotech 2011, which is considered as thepreferred education solutions provider in Southeast Asia and also an ISO9001: 2008 Certif ied, the Philippine is the last country in Asia and one of only three countries in the world with a 10-year pre-university program. The K-12 model to be impleme nted in the country is an educationalsystem for basic and secondary education pa tterned after the United 1 DepEd discussion paper, The Enhanced K+12 Basic Education Program , 05 October 201 0. Page | 3 States, Canada, and some parts of Australia. The current basiceducation system i s also an archetype of American schooling but with a10-year cycle.DepEd reasons that it is high time to adopt a K-12 system, attributingthe low achievement scor es and poor quality of basic education to thepresent school setup. Following wid e protests over the proposal, thedepartment released its official position defen ding K-12. 2 We need to add two years to our basic education, those who can afford pay up to fourteen years of schooling before university. Thus, their children are getting into the best universities and the best jobs after graduation. I want at least 1 2 years for our public school children to give them an even chance at succeeding . quoted from the statement of HisExcellency President Benigno S. Aquino III.K-12 has been met with criticism from youth and student groups,teachers, parents and the academic community. The DepEd, for its part,appears determined to enact the program with its proposed budgetcatering mostly to preparing the grounds for its eventual implementation. The DepEd argues that the K-12 program will be the sol ution to yearly basic education woes and the deteriorating quality of education. Critics, however, counteract that the education crisis needs to beaddressed more

fundamentally and adding more school years would only exacerbate the situation. With the proposed policy K-12 program, various arguments andcriticisms were form ulated. Different conditions generate differentassumptions, which in turn create different policies. The success of any policy depends on the correctness of its policy assumptions. 3 Ta ing this fact into consideration, questions ta e place, shouldpolicy assump tions be made based on current realities? Or should policy be based on policy co nditions as expected to happen, but which may notexist by the time the policy im plementation was started? The below mentioned problems are just some of the quer ies wherenecessary answers are in need to be sought in order to satisfy 2 Sarah Katrina Maramag, Is the K-12 model good for the Philippine Education System ? , PhilippineOnline Chronicles, May 2011.

Page | 4 uncertainties with regards to the implementation of this educationalchanges prov ided in K-12 Policy

3 Junifen F. Gauuan, 6 March 2011.

K+12 Policy Framewor : Pessimistic, Optimistic or Realistic? , 2