IN JUNE of this year, incoming president BBM issued an instruction to his vice president and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio to review Republic Act 10533, more commonly known as “K-12”.
I have not yet seen a reply to this instruction.
The main recent substantive issue in the education sector has been observations about the merits and demerits of mandatory ROTC.
Last week’s announcement that DepEd has warned that employees and personnel ‘shall not disparage DepEd and must always be mindful of the reputation and honor of the organization’ as it issued an expanded policy that ostensibly seeks to promote professionalism within the agency came as a surprise to me.
This is an amended departmental order and was signed by Secretary Duterte. My surprise was because I was not aware that DepEd had been disparaged.
I do, however, empathize with Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) chairperson Vladimir Quetua who expressed concern about the expanded policy, saying that parts of the order ‘threaten the freedom of expression and right to redress the grievances of DepEd personnel’.
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It was around ten years ago when there was a vigorous debate about the forthcoming K-12 Act which was eventually passed in January 2013. At the time, there was a plethora of ‘contributed articles’, in newspapers, including PN, from teachers which generally extolled the virtues of K-12. They reinforced the enthusiastic pronouncements of DepEd Secretary Br Armin Luistro.
I was somewhat cynical of these articles as they tended to represent an uncritical view of the advantages of K-12 and to omit the valid concerns expressed by parents and other “stakeholders”.
Much to my surprise, these articles are still appearing:
This means that the K-12 debate is continuing.
In 2012, I wrote to then Senator BBM expressing concern about K-12. To my pleasant surprise, I received a thoughtful reply from the Senator’s office.
A valid problem at the time was the use of propaganda tactics by those favoring K-12. This included the rule of unanimity where the K-12 supporters presented their viewpoint as if it were the unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people. Any contrary view was belittled.
Vigorous debate is welcomed by democracies. Education policy, in particular, should be characterized by articulate expressions of views.
I hope DepEd will support the right to disagree from everyone, including lowly teachers./PN
