AT A MALACAÑANG press briefing last week, Department of Education (DepEd) secretary Leonor Briones said her department will conduct a “thorough review” of its K to 12 education program.
Good timing.
The first students to properly complete Grades 11 and 12 have just graduated. I have monitored what has been achieved in what passes for “Senior High School” between June 2016 and March 2018 and can award DepEd a failing grade. The complete implementation of its curriculum has not taken place. Moreover, there has been no attempt, via a national examination, to assess what students have accomplished.
What to do?
I believe that the Supreme Court (SC) should belatedly examine the petitions that were submitted in 2013. These petitions, six in number, assailed the Constitutionality of Republic Act (RA) 10533 a.k.a. the K-12 Act.
I do not believe these petitions were seriously considered or, possibly, not considered at all. They should have been. Both RA 10157 and RA 10533 are high-handed and tend to sideline parental rights to rear their children, a concept enshrined in the 1987 Constitution.
The high-handedness stems from the compulsory nature of 13 years of education, extraordinarily mediocre by international standards, before student may enter tertiary education.
I believe students should be able to enter tertiary institutions when they are capable of benefitting from tertiary courses. For many students, this comes after four years of high school. (Now inappropriately downgraded to “Junior” High School).
The lack of separation of powers between the Executive and Judicial branches of government did not begin with President Duterte. Former Chief Justice Sereno was appointed by former President Aquino and the failure of the SC to address the constitutionality of RA 10533 is a regrettable example of the Judicial branch’s unwillingness to assert its co-equal status with the Executive branch.
The incoming Chief Justice can do much to retrieve the standing of the SC by conducting an impartial examination of RA 10533.
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Briones mentioned the importance of problem solving in preference to rote memorization for students. Quite right.
Problem solving is particularly significant when it comes to preparing for a digital career and Briones mentioned the significance of robotics.
Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, executive director of the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology, would concur. Batapa-Sigue stresses the importance of human-machine interactions and the possibility of robots joining the workforce.
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The 2019 budget earmarks P659.3 billion for DepEd. Salaries are a significant component. Briones has proposed a hike in the starting salary of registered guidance counselors to lure them into public schools.
Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said DepEd has asked the budget department to increase the starting pay of guidance counselors to Salary Grade 16 or P31,765 per month. Wow! How many nanoseconds will it take for 800,000 teachers now on Salary Grade 11 to say “Me too”?
The difference in annual emoluments between Salary Grade 16 and Salary Grade 11 is around P150,000. This means that if teachers are paid the same as is proposed for guidance counselors, DepEd’s annual salary bill would increase by P120 billion.
Taxpayers beware!/PN
