Coalition supports adding 2 years to basic education

A CEBU-BASED organization supports the Department of Education’s (DepEd) move to add two years to the basic education program.

The Coalition for Better Education (CBE) said the country should adopt the proposal, dubbed as the K+12 Basic Education Program, to comply with the global standard for basic education.

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“A 12-year basic education cycle will allow the system to build flexibility in the curriculum to expand coverage and content.

Along this line, the child is presumed to have developed sufficient higher order thinking skills, analytic tools and knowledge to enter either college or the world of work,” the group said in a position paper.

The group noted that only 27 percent of high school graduates in the country enroll in college and only 16 percent graduate “either because of financial difficulties or loss of interest.”

“In the current cycle, high school graduates who do not wish to enroll in college will have to wait for two years in order for them to be absorbed in the workforce. By the time these graduates become eligible to work, the competencies they learned two years ago may be outdated, thus, requiring them to re-train,” the group added.

The group also recommends that DepEd “address the infrastructure and supra-infrastructure requirements needed for the efficient and effective implementation of the program.”

The DepEd, CBE added, should also collaborate closely with industries, entrepreneurs and practicing professionals in the development of an enhanced curriculum.

Another recommendation by the group is for the DepEd to design a curriculum that is based on internationally-approved standards.

“Expanding to a five-year high school is necessary to master competencies through relevant content needed to develop the competence needed for college or the world of work. Without mastery of basic competencies, we are not going to develop a productive work force and create a ‘mind power’ force. And without a productive work force, we may as well forget about being a competitive economy,” the group said.

Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Young, who heads the local school board, has said the proposed K+12 Basic Education Program is impractical, given that DepEd has not been able to address the problems in the 10-year basic education cycle.

“We don’t have enough classrooms and teachers and they (DepEd) said it themselves and then they’re going to add two more years? How are they going to implement it? What is the use of putting two more years when the quality of the first 10 years is terrible?”

Young earlier said.