The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
To make up for the rise in the number of school dropouts amid the increase in school years through the Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 (K-to-12) system, incoming Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis-wBriones said the Alternative Learning System (ALS) will be boosted to allow more students to advance in their studies outside of a classroom.
At the same time, Briones said the K-to-12 program would be pursued with vigor to provide pupils and students with enough basic education. She noted that the Philippines is the last country in Asia and one of only three countries worldwide with a 10-year pre-university cycle (Angola and Djibouti are the other two).
As part of the government commitment to the goal of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) to extend education to all, especially to the marginalized sector, the ALS program aims to give non-formal education to elementary and high-school dropouts to improve their skills and, therefore, their opportunities to land jobs.
Briones said she would strive to seek a significant increase in the funding for the ALS to accommodate all those who want to avail themselves of an informal education.
Noting that the current allocation for ALS was inadequate, Briones, a former national treasurer, said she wanted a P45-billion budget for the program.
Briones said the national budget should be efficiently used to serve as a ”genuine equalizer” in addressing poverty, inequality and sustainable development.
”Without doubt, not all pupils would be absorbed into the K-12 program. So provisions have to be made for alternative learning systems that will ensure that no one would be left behind,” Briones said.
She said that with or without the K-to-12 implementation, 50 percent of the students do not go to college. But she said learning could take place any time and any place, through informal means, depending on the convenience and availability of the learners.
She said some 1.189 million Filipinos with ages from 15 to 24 account for 48.2 percent of the unemployed sector, based on labor statistics of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
As of January this year, the number of unemployed Filipinos who reached high school was placed at 1.1 million; under current statistics, they comprise 45.4 percent of the country’s jobless.
Briones said the competition for jobs in the country is expected to become more intense, with the emergence of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), a common market with free movement of labor. This means that any citizen from the members of Asean—Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—can look for a job in the Philippines. And with the greater number of years of basic education among other Asean students, Filipino job applicants would be no match for other Asean nationals.
“A person’s capacity to work or to deal with his work and responsibilities is not only determined by his technical side but also the kind of broad education he gets,” Briones said. A person who has spent two years of technical-vocational education is clearly at an advantage compared to someone who has learned it on his own.
Briones said that in other countries—in the Middle East, Europe, or the United States where Filipino professionals seek employment, even if they have PhDs, they would still be ranked lower than their counterparts there primarily because in those countries, they count the number of years that job applicants spend in their basic education.
She advised parents and other critics of K-to-12 “to veer away from the old mindset of two more years of additional expenses, or else risk being left behind in these changing realities.” She said this was why she was determined to pursue the K-to-12 program “to make us more competitive.”
Briones noted that the present allocations for the education sector, even if they have fulfilled the constitutional requirements, are not enough.
”Because of all these developments, we really have to spend more on education. You cannot just set the Constitution as a standard. It has to be as sufficient and as responsive to the needs (of the education sector),” she said.
The K-to-12 program, implemented four years ago, covers kindergarten and 12 years of basic education to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills, for developing lifelong learners, and for preparing graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship.
Briones said there would be more problems arising from the suspension of the K-to-12 program compared to its continuation.
”We are aware that contingency measures are being adopted by both the CHED and DepEd. These have to be closely monitored to ensure that identified challenges are met,” said Briones.
Briones said more focus must be given to out-of-school children and youth, as well as teachers who might be adversely displaced by the K-12 program.
”In the meantime, a transition team is being organized to ensure orderly and seamless transfer of duties. The DepEd, under the leadership of Secretary Armin Luistro is giving full cooperation and support to the incoming team,” Briones said.