Honeyman: K to 12: The Hidden Agenda

Monday, February 13, 2012

IN MAY 2011, Senator Antonio F Trillanes IV put forward a Resolution ‘Directing the Senate Committee on Education to conduct an inquiry into the feasibility, viability, practicality and the acceptability of justifications advanced by the Department of Education in implementing K to 12.’

Trillanes then penned several cogent paragraphs indicating that K to 12 is indeed infeasible, unviable, impractical, unacceptable and unjustifiable.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

Unfortunately, our legislative branch of government has since done nothing of value.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. DepEd reportedly stated that K-12 would not have an impact until 2016. This is true only if we are thinking of the additional teachers, classrooms, etc. But we are thinking of our children. Our Grade 6 students will be impacted by K to 12 in June of this year. Instead of starting a four year high school course they will enter Grade 7 where they will start a stretched out six year course. At least two years are wasted.

In summary, there is now so longer a reasonable four year secondary course available to those who graduate from grade school and need a good academic grounding if they are to benefit from a college course commencing in June 2016.

Apart from some functionaries within DepEd no - one approves of K-12. It was excoriated by a recent [31 January] Sun Star editorial. The budgetary implications of K to 12 will be enormous but this will be shouldered by the government of next president.

Although huge, the direct impact of K to 12 on the public purse is small in comparison with the unrecognized and therefore unacknowledged costs incurred by families in supporting its members attending school. Such cavalier treatment of other people’s resources is not what we expect from a Liberal government.

As far as the 2016 Elections are concerned, the Liberal Party standard bearer will have a hard time justifying K to 12 against a candidate who will appeal to a pragmatic populace.

We sense that there has been insufficient debate about K to 12 within the Cabinet.

Has Budget Sec Butch Abad, whose colorful resume includes stints at DepEd and Hyatt 10, evaluated the budgetary implications fully?

We now have a half-baked plan which, unless someone stops it, will become fully-baked implementation immediately after the summer break. Why are our legislators standing idly by?

The private sector has a role to play. 20% of Bacolod’s students are in fee-paying schools. These schools are torn between DepEd and the wishes of those who pay the fees. So far DepEd appears to be winning. But there is a tremendous opportunity waiting for a private school that respects the views of the fee-paying parents. What the school has to do is to mount a four year, academically sound, high school education which, as now, prepares students for appropriate tertiary education. Any takers? Parental support versus ultra vires responses from DepEd is guaranteed.

DepEd claims to be in touch with numerous bodies which are impacted by K to 12. But reports of these consultations range between sparse and non-existent.

A year or so ago, CHED wanted to have five year college courses. No-one else did. Eventually, CHED backed down. DepEd should do the same. Otherwise PNoy’s popularity rating will plummet.

Betrayal of public trust

Betrayal of public trust occurs when someone has failed to be loyal to our firm belief in their reliability, truthfulness, or ability.

Corona has so failed.

Corona’s colleague, Associate Justice Mariano C. de Castillo used, without attribution, other people’s words when writing a Resolution.

The House of Representatives’ justice committee last Tuesday decided by 27 votes to 4 that the impeachment complaint relating to del Castillo’s alleged plagiarism and intellectual dishonesty is sufficient in grounds to constitute betrayal of public trust. The next step is for the committee to determine whether del Castillo’s conduct is sufficient in probable cause.

Probable cause, in this context, surely means that del Castillo’s Resolution, due to his use of plagiarized material, is faulty.

Regrettably, I do not believe this to be the case, so I consider that the House Justice Committee should decide not to submit the impeachment complaint to the full House.

We shall see.

What we can expect from our elected representatives?

The Constitution, Revised Penal Code, Civil Code, Rules of Court, etc are all clearly-written documents that help us navigate significant matters. The documents are not arcane or difficult to understand. Therefore, we should not be intimidated by those who have greater familiarity with their contents than we do.

The Constitution consists of 18 (XVIII) Articles. Each Article contains several Sections. The numbering systems specify Articles in Roman and Sections in Arabic Numerals.

For example, Art XVI Sec 3 says ‘The State may not be sued without its consent.’ I may invoke this in a possible future article where I shall talk about the lack of success by the government to persuade the private sector to take an interest in Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects.

It is neither necessary nor sufficient for our elected representatives to be lawyers. And they should not feel inferior to those who are. We do, however, expect our Reps. to be able to hold their own with anyone. Miriam may have her colloquies, whereas the rest of us merely have conversations, but productive discourse is necessary for effective representation. We also expect our Senators and Congressman for whom we have voted to contribute actively to a legislative agenda which best represents our interests.

Otherwise the Executive Branch of government will overwhelm the theoretically co-equal Legislative branch. This is happening with K to 12 where an amazingly small and atypical faction, without any public mandate or discernible leadership qualities, is, by ignoring articulate objections, threatening to impose its will on an unhappy populace.

This has got to stop.

Corona

When a case is in Court, we do not expect another Court to be interfering with the Court where the case is being heard.

Art XI Sec 6 states that ‘the Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment.’ Sole power. This means that the Supreme Court (SC), constitutionally, has no legitimate authority to block evidence that the Senate has subpoenaed. The SC’s TRO supporting PSBank’s uncooperativeness is reprehensible. TROs are becoming a bad habit. A decade ago, former CJ Davide spoke firmly about excessive usage of TROs to all RTC judges. We wish the SC would have listened to him.

If the PSBank CEO appears at the impeachment trial to-day, he should bring his toothbrush. I cannot see Senate President Enrile being patient for much longer.

PS Bank should also explain why they accepted Corona’s deposit of US$700,000 if it did not make appropriate inquiries. The Anti-money laundering Act of 2002 is quite specific on this matter.
Jam-Step

We recommend that parents and other family members monitor how students’ time is being used or misused. School ‘authorities’ are not above making inappropriate demands. The ‘jam step’ activity should clearly be voluntary, not compulsory. Nor should moral blackmail be used to coerce students into what they may perceive to be what my texting friends call CWOT. [A complete waste of time].