Del Rosario, Jan S.

3SED-SC

My Opinions About K-12

The implementation of the K-12 curriculum has been a center of discussion among

government leaders, teachers, concerned students and ordinary people years ago. Now it’s on its

way to its third year of being implemented, it had also been three or four years for me of answering

why at what about K-12.

Years ago, lots of discussions and debates happen between optimistic people believing in

the reform of our system and those who are pessimistic enough to think of it as a new burden for

parents to carry.

There are those who think of its implementation as just a conformation with the ASEAN

member countries, yes it is, we did it to conform with them but have these people no trust in the

government to think that our leaders are that narrow minded to risk our educational system just

for conformity? K-12 is intended to conform to the standards of educational systems of the ASEAN

member countries with the aim of improving our system too and preparing our people to be more

than just educated but productive.

“Quality vs. quantity?” I was more than twice asked, “No” I said, “It’s quality plus quantity.”

We are not going to add two more years of burden for parents just for nothing, the increase in

quantity will also mean increase in quality. The spiral curriculum, the additional subjects, the

medium of instruction; these are all carefully studied to give us more quality education.

It can also be “quality plus quantity plus productivity”, with the help of TESDA, the senior

high school will be a training ground for students in specific fields that they would like to pursue

sooner or later after high school. By applying practical skills they have learned, they can already

work after high school if they cannot pursue college therefore lessening our unemployment rate.

There are also fields of Education, Science, Management and many other more that they may choose

from in the senior year which will give them an overview of the course they may take in college.

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K-12 has a flaw in the issue of nationalism according to others, yes there may be an issue

about the medium of instruction in the higher years but look at the preparatory or beginning years,

isn’t it that the native language will be used as the medium of teaching before Filipino and English?

And one more thing, is nationalism all about the language that we speak? It is clearly not, there are

a lot of our people who talks in Filipino but speaks a lot of bad words, what the hell, oh I’m sorry for

that, I’m just carried away by my emotions, what I intend to say is nationalism is what’s within the

heart not just the words coming out our mouths. Nationalism is not lost in the implementation of

K-12, the fact that it is intended to make our educational system better for the country and the

people, that’s a huge deed of nationalism. Teachers will play a vital role in building nationalism

among students.

Our system isn’t perfect, K-12 isn’t perfect; but whether we like it or not, we cannot do

anything but accept it. As future teachers, believe in it, make the most of it, for yourself, for

students, for the school and the country and most specially to God.

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