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Nationalist Critique of the K to 12 (K+12/K-12)
Program: Issues, Implications, and Alternatives1
David Michael M. San Juan
Filipino Department, De La Salle University-Manila
~~~
“Go not gently into night/Rage against the dying of the light!...
Rage until the lightning strikes!”
- from the song “Rage” by The Jerks (a Filipino band)2
The K to 12 scheme is now official policy after the passage of House Bill 6643 or
“AN ACT ENHANCING THE PHILIPPINE BASIC EDUCATION SYSTEM BY
STRENGTHENING ITS CURRICULUM AND INCREASING THE NUMBER OF YEARS
FOR BASIC EDUCATION, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES” and the corresponding measure in the Upper House (Senate Bill 3286).
Under this program, a year of kindergarten is deemed compulsory (as the government
has already established kindergarten schools that charge no tuition), and the former 10-
year basic education cycle would become 12 years, following what K to 12 advocates
have labeled as the “global standard.” Aside from Grades 1 to 6 and four years of junior
high school (Grades 7 to 10), a student in the Philippines need to complete two years of
senior high school or junior college (Grades 11 at 12) before he gets to enroll in the
tertiary or university level. Generally, pro-K to 12 advocates boast that this scheme is a
step to make the Philippine education at par with global standards. Currently, Djibouti
1Author’s own DRAFT translation of a paper presented last December 2012; this draft is very crude and still unedited but, for the purpose of understanding why Filipino nationalists are opposing the Aquino administration’s K to 12 scheme, this material will be helpful; revised version to be released soon; this version omitted some paragraphs from the Filipino original available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/115985721/Nasyunalistang-Pagsipat-Sa-K-to-12-Mga-Isyu-Implikasyon-at-Alternatibo. The original paper in Filipino was presented in the 2012-2013 Lecture Series of the Filipino Department of De La Salle University (DLSU)-Manila. The 2012-2013 Lecture Series was named after Dr. Magdalena C. Sayas, a former head of the Filipino Department of DLSU-Manila.
2Some parts of this song’s lyrics were influenced by a famous poem written by Dylan Thomas.
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and Angola are the last two countries in the world that still stick with a 10-year basic
education/pre-university education cycle. Nevertheless, if official K to 12 documents will
be comprehensively analyzed, it would be clear that this program has a non-nationalist
agenda. This is a big issue because the Philippine Constitution through Article XIV,
Section 2.1 and 3.2 emphasizes that nationalism is one of the primary elements of
Philippine education. If it is proven that the K to 12 is non-nationalist, it will be justified to
assert its scrapping, and the creation of an alternative progressive and nationalist
education system.
Conceptual and Theoretical Bases: Nationalism and Dependency Theory in the
Economy, Politics, and Education
Conceptually, the ideas of nationalist thinkers and the Dependency Theorists can
be used to critique the K to 12 that the PDP supports as reform initiative aligned with the
current regime’s development goals. The contribution of the national hero Dr. Jose
Protacio Rizal on the development of nationalist thinking in the Philippines was very
significant. He exposed the abuses of Spanish colonialism through his novels “Noli Me
Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo.” Aside from this, he also expressed some ideas on
developing a genuinely Filipino education and culture.
In Chapter 15 of “El Filibusterismo3,” Rizal clarified his stance on the true worth of
education and life. In the said chapter, Mister Pasta (a careerist lawyer who doesn’t
care about his country’s welfare because he’s living a good life anyway), and Isagani
(leader of reformist youth in the novel) had a debate. Mister Pasta gave a bad advice to
Isagani: “You're going to study medicine? Well, confine yourself to learning how to put
on plasters and apply leeches, and don't ever try to improve or impair the condition of
your kind. When you become a licentiate, marry a rich and devout girl, try to make cures
and charge well, shun everything that has any relation to the general state of the
country, attend mass, confession, and communion when the rest do, and you will see
afterwards how you will thank me, and I shall see it, if I am still alive. Always remember
that charity begins at home, for man ought not to seek on earth more than the greatest
3 Quotation from “El Filibusterismo” were lifted from the translation by Charles Derbyshire (1912). Quotes from “Noli Me Tangere” were lifted from the translation by Leon Ma. Guerrero (1961).
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amount of happiness for himself, as Bentham says. If you involve yourself in quixotisms
you will have no career, nor will you get married, nor will you ever amount to anything.
All will abandon you, your own countrymen will be the first to laugh at your simplicity.
Believe me, you will remember me and see that I am right, when you have gray hairs
like myself, gray hairs such as these!" Isagani’s reply mirrors the stance of nationalist
citizens who believe that no man is an island: “When I have gray hairs like those, sir,
and turn my gaze back over my past and see that I have worked only for myself, without
having done what I plainly could and should have done for the country that has given
me everything, for the citizens that have helped me to live--then, sir, every gray hair will
be a thorn, and instead of rejoicing, they will shame me!”
In Chapter 7 of “El Filibusterismo,” Basilio and Simoun had a vigorous exchange
of ideas. Basilio (Sisa’s son who’s now a student of medicine) and his fellow students
assert that the indios need to learn the Spanish language so that they could be of equal
stature as Spanish citizens. Simoun’s nationalist stance is clear on this regard “You are
letting yourselves be deceived by big words and never go to the bottom of things to
examine the results in their final analysis. Spanish will never be the general language of
the country, the people will never talk it, because the conceptions of their brains and the
feelings of their hearts cannot be expressed in that language—each people has its own
tongue, as it has its own way of thinking! What are you going to do with Castilian, the
few of you who will speak it? Kill off your own originality, subordinate your thoughts to
other brains, and instead of freeing yourselves, make yourselves slaves indeed!...you
are trying to despoil yourselves of your own nationality!” One only had to use “English”
instead of “Spanish” and “Castilian” in the abovementiond quotation and Simoun’s
exhortation to Basilio would be clearer and more significant in the current context.
Simoun issued a reminded too regarding how to jumpstart the sowing of the
seeds of nationalism to the hearts of the people, especially to the youth: “One and all
you forget that while a people preserves its language, it preserves the marks of its
liberty, as a man preserves his independence while he holds to his own way of thinking.
Language is the thought of the peoples.” As long as the country’s very tongue is in
chains, the country cannot free itself from foreign economic dominance. Simoun further
noted the relationship between the development of a unique national identity and
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national progress: “…Distinguish yourselves then by revealing yourselves in your own
character, try to lay the foundations of the Philippine fatherland! Do they deny you
hope? Good! Don’t depend on them, depend upon yourselves and work!...cultivate your
own (language), extend it, preserve to the people their own way of thinking, and instead
of aspiring to be a province, aspire to be a nation! Instead of subordinate thoughts, think
independently, to the end that neither by right, nor custom, nor language, the Spaniard
can be considered the master here, nor even be looked upon as a part of the country,
but ever as an invader, a foreigner, and sooner or later you will have your liberty!...”
In Chapter 20 of “Noli Me Tangere,” one young character expressed Rizal’s ideas
on meaningful entertainment whichis a vital element of nationalist education, more
especially that the use of media is now part of the curriculum: “My plan, gentleman can
be reduced to this: we must think up new entertainments that are out of the common
run....” Instead of ordinary Westernized moro-moro about the “kings of Bohemia and
Granada...princesses who go into battle...or else wandering forlorn in mountain and vale
as if under the spell of a sorcerer,” the young character would want indigenous stories –
like a play about Maria Makiling – to be presented in public. For Rizal, entertainment
must mirror indigenous culture: “Would it not be a thousand times better to present a
picture of our own customs and traditions, so that we may thus understand and correct
our vices and defects, and extol our virtues?”
In general, as per Rizal’s perspective, instead of global standards, native culture
and the welfare of the Filipino people form the solid foundations of a truly Filipino
education. Rizal’s perspective is not unexpectedly reflective of the perspectives of
revolutionaries like Emilio Jacinto and Andres Bonifacio who are both leaders of the
Katipunan. The “Kartilya ng Katipunan4” written by Emilio Jacinto emphasizes that: “A
person's worth is not measured by his/her station in life, neither by the height of his
nose nor the fairness of skin, and certainly not by whether he is a priest claiming to be
God's deputy. Even if he is a tribesman/tribeswoman from the hills and speaks only
his/her own tongue, a person is honorable if he/she possesses a good character, is true
4 The transcription of the “Kartilya ng Katipunan” was “created by Kamalaysayan on July 1992 for Katipunan, Sandaan!” and the translation was made by Paula Carolina Santos-Malay according to http://kartilya-katipunan.blogspot.com/
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to his/her word, has fine perceptions and is loyal to his/her native land.” Jacinto further
said that “When these teachings shall have been propagated and the glorious sun of
freedom begins to shine on these poor islands to enlighten a united race and people,
then all the loves lost, all the struggle and sacrifices shall not have been in vain.”
Plainly, Jacinto asserts that the true honor of a citizen is measured by his concern for
his motherland. Certainly, the “propagation of these teachings” can be only achieved
through a nationalist education system that values the sacrifices of those who have
fought for the country’s freedom.
In the poem “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa” (Love for the Motherland), Andres
Bonifacio, clearly mentioned what must be emphasized by the education system:
“Nothing dear to a person with a pure heart/
is denied to the country that gave him birth:/blood, wealth, knowledge, sacrifices,
E'en if life itself ends.”5 As per Bonifacio’s perspective, everything that one values in
life– wisdom, education – should be offered to the country. Instead of dependence on
foreigners through attracting foreign investors Bonifacio in his essay/editorial “Ang
Dapat Mabatid ng Mga Tagalog” (“What Must Be Known By All Citizens”) emphasized
that “...we must strive to depend on ourselves and not wait for others to provide us
livelihood. Common sense dictates that we should unite in mind and in heart so that we
could find the strength to seek remedy to the prevailing evil in our Nation.” Even before
Renato Constantino condemned the “miseducation of the Filipino,” Bonifacio already
clarified what must be done to resolve the miseducation of citizens who think like
slaves: “...it’s about time to express that we have our own grievances, our dignitym our
shame, and our emphathy for each other. This is a time for us to start spreading the
great idea that would lift the thick veil that blinds our minds; it’s about time that our
citizens realize what’s the root cause of their miseries.” The root cause of the citizens’
miseries that Bonifacio mentioned is nothing but colonialism, which in our time
metamorphosed into a form of neocolonialism in politics, economy, and culture (all the
more in education).
5 Teodoro Agoncillo’s translation from http://kasaysayan-kkk.info/docs.ab.pagibig.htm
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It is not surprising that on October 19, a few months after independence was
declared at Kawit, Cavite, the revolutionary government led by Emilio Aguinaldo issued
a decree establishing the Universidad Literaria de Filipinas (the first university
established by Filipinos). This is congruent to the goal of the Katipunan – as expressed
by Bonifacio – “to start spreading the great idea that would lift the thick veil that blinds
our minds...” Revolutionaries know that the country’s independence can be completely
safeguarded only through establishing a genuinely pro-Filipino education, away from the
education offered by universities established and managed by Spanish friars then.
Beyond Dr. Jose Rizal and other nationalists of the latter part of 1800s, among
the ranks of contemporary Filipino nationalists, Prof. Renato Constantino’s writings are
very popular. Constantino is an activist, researcher, historian and diplomat, victimized
by Martial Law imposed by the Marcos dictatorship. He was put under house arrest
because of his radical articles that provide a critical and nationalist perspective on the
fields of the economy, politics and education. Constantino’s pamphlet “The
Miseducation of The Filipino” is now staple reading in schools. At the outset, the said
pamphlet clearly mentions the importance of a nationalist education that would secure
political and economic independence for a former colony like the Philippines: “Education
is a vital weapon of a people striving for economic emancipation, political independence
and cultural renaissance.” Constantino’s analysis of the Philippine education system’s
analysi is still valid: “...no comprehensive educational programme has been advanced
as a corollary to the programmes for political and economic emancipation. This is a
tragic situation because the nationalist movement is crippled at the outset by a citizenry
that is ignorant of our basic ills and is apathetic to our national welfare.” Constantino
elaborated on another primary reason behind the existence of colonial/colonized
mentality among Filipinos then and now: “The first and perhaps the master stroke in the
plan to use education as an instrument of colonial policy was the decision to use
English as the medium of instruction. English became the wedge that separated the
Filipinos from their past and later to separate educated Filipinos from the masses of
their countrymen. English introduced the Filipinos to a strange, new world. With
American textbooks, Filipinos started learning not only a new language but also a new
way of life, alien to their traditions and yet a caricature of their model. This was the
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beginning of their education. At the same time, it was the beginning of their mis-
education, for they learned no longer as Filipinos but as colonials.” This echoes
Simoun’s pronouncements in Chapter 7 of “El Filibusterismo.”
Constantino outlined the role of those who promote nationalist education and
condemned those who say only global standards matter: “What then are the nationalist
tasks for Philippine education? Education must both be seen not as an acquisition of
information but as the making of man so that he may function most effectively and and
usefully within his own society. Therefore, education cannot be divorced from the
society of a definite country at a definite time. It is a fallacy to think that educational
goals should be the same everywhere and that therefore what goes into the making of a
well-educated American is the same as what should go into the making of the well-
educated Filipino. This would be true only if the two societies were at the same political,
cultural, and economic level and had the same political, cultural and economic goals.
But what happened in this country? Not only do we imitate Western education, we have
patterned our education after the most technologically advanced western nations. The
gap between the two societies is very large. In fact, they are two entirely different
societies with different goals.”
Hence, in accordance with Constantino’s and other nationalists’ perspective, an
education system that does not take into consideration the people’s welfare and
progress is tehcnically useless. In more precise words: an education that is not
nationalist is useless even if it follows the “global standards.” The last paragraphs of
Constantino’s pamphlet would be enough to summarize his thoughts in relation to the
current discussion: “The education of the Filipino must be a Filipino education. It must
be based on the needs of the nation and the goals of the nation. The object is not
merely to produce men and women who can read and write or who can add and
subtract. The primary object is to produce a citizenry that appreciates and is conscious
of its nationhood and has national goals for the betterment of the community, and not an
anarchic mass of people who know how to take care of themselves only.
Our students hear of Rizal and Bonifacio but are their teachings related to our
present problems or do they merely learn of anecdotes and incidents that prove
interesting to the child's imagination? We have learned to use American criteria for our
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problems and we look at our prehistory and our past with the eyes of a visitor. A lot of
information is learned but attitudes are not developed. The proper regards for things
Philippine, the selfish concern over the national fate --these are not at all imbedded in
the consciousness of students. Children and adolescents go to school to get a
certificate or diploma. They try to learn facts but the patriotic attitude is not acquired
because of too much emphasis on forms. What should be the basic objective of
education in the Philippines? Is it merely to produce men and women who can read and
write? If this is the only purpose, then education is directionless. Education should first
of all assure national survival. No amount of economic and political policy can be
successful if the educational programme does not imbue prospective citizens with the
proper attitudes that will ensure the implementation of these goals and policies.
Philippine educational policies should be geared to the making of Filipinos. These
policies should see to it that schools produce men and women with minds and attitudes
that are attuned to the needs of the country.
Under previous colonial regimes, education saw to it that the Filipino mind was
subservient to that of the master. The foreign overlords were esteemed. We were not
taught to view them objectively, seeing their virtues as well as their faults. This led out
citizens to form a distorted opinion of the foreign masters and also of themselves. We
must now think of ourselves, of our salvation, of our future. And unless we prepare the
minds of the young for this endeavor, we shall always be a pathetic people with no
definite goals and no assurance of preservation.”
In general, Constantino can be considered as an ally of those who believe in the
effectiveness and truthfulness of the Teoría de la Dependencia/Dependency Theory. In
past decades, Teoría de la Dependencia/Dependency Theory became popular in Latin
America and other continents in the Third World. Dependency Theorists believe that
industrialized countries exploit poor countries through economic neocolonialism.
In a speech delivered on March 25, 1964 (“On Development”) at the plenary
session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Dr.
Ernesto “Che” Guevara (a physician, economist and popular guerilla leader who helped
Fidel Castro in ousting Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship) summarized the Dependency
Theory critique of the global status quo: "The inflow of capital from the developed
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countries is the prerequisite for the establishment of economic dependence. This inflow
takes various forms: loans granted on onerous terms; investments that place a given
country in the power of the investors; almost total technological subordination of the
dependent country to the developed country; control of a country's foreign trade by the
big international monopolies; and in extreme cases, the use of force as an economic
weapon in support of the other forms of exploitation." The relevance of Dependency
Theory in analyzing educational policies will be clearer if the “other forms of exploitation”
that Dr. Guevara mentioned will be scrutinized.
Vincent Ferraro (2008) explained what these other forms of exploitation are in a
chapter entitled "Dependency Theory: An Introduction," (in the book “The Development
Economics Reader,” ed. Giorgio Secondi): “The distinction between underdevelopment
and undevelopment places the poorer countries of the world is a profoundly different
historical context. These countries are not ‘behind’ or ‘catching up’ to the richer
countries of the world. They are not poor because they lagged behind the scientific
transformations or the Enlightenment values of the European states. They are poor
because they were coercively integrated into the European economic system only as
producers of raw materials or to serve as repositories of cheap labor, and were denied
the opportunity to market their resources in any way that competed with dominant
states.”
In accordance with Dependency Theory, The Philippines is currently among the
chief “repositories of cheap labor.” As per the data of the Philippine Overseas
Employment Agency/POEA (2011), there are around 3,500 Pilipino who go abroad each
day to work and become Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). The government brags
about the Philippines’ status as one of the main centers of the Business Processing
Outsourcing (BPO) sector that “robs” North Americans and Europeans jobs so that such
jobs will be “given” to a few Asian countries where citizens are willing to receive a lower
wage rate, relative to what workers in other developed countries receive. Information
Technology-BPO is among the Philippine government’s 10 “priority development areas”
under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016. According to a report by
Francis Earl A. Cueto (2012), the Philippines has actually dislodged India as the primary
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destination of BPO firms. Compared with India’s 300,000 call center agents, the
Philippines had 350,000 in 2011.
Meanwhile, it is very easy to prove that the Philippines is one of the producers of
raw materials that remain poor and non-industrialized because of the impositions of
leaders who are in cahoots with big foreign capitalists. From the Marcos regime to the
second Aquino administration, attracting foreign investors has been the Philippine
government’s mantra. It is worth remembering that one the true reasons behind the
declaration of Martial law in 1972 was the Marcos dictatorship’s accelerated
implementation of pro-foreign policies in the economy and blockage of nationalist
advocacies of some members of the 1972 Constitutional Convention noong 1972
(Lichauco, 1988 and Pimentel, 2006). Though the 1987 Constitution that was ratified
under the first Aquino administration contains some nationalist provisions, President
Cory did not lift a finger to reverse the pro-foreign policies of the Marcos dictatorship.
For example, she maintained and never shelved out the automatic debt appropriation
that the Marcos dictatorship imposed. This policy is the main cause of the government’s
insufficient budget for social services such as health and education. Meanwhile, the
Ramos, Estrada and Macapagal-Arroyo administrations are notorious for their attempts
to remove the patriotic economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution (like the prohibition
of 100% foreign ownership of industries in the Philippines and a ban on foreign
ownership of land) through various Charter Change (Cha-Cha) campaigns. House
Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte and Senate President Juan “Johnny” Ponce Enrile
– both allies of the second Aquino administration – also push for the same type of Cha-
Cha. Even the second Aquino administration’s Philippine Development Plan (PDP)
2011-2016 is replete of pro-foreign policies too, according to a critique made by Ibon
Databank.
In general, contemporary administrations use the policy of attracting foreign
investment as a trick to prevent the spread of nationalist consciousness that emphasize
self-reliance in the economic aspect (self-dependence, as mentioned by Simoun in
Chapter 7 of “El Filibusterismo”) which can be achieved through national/nationalist
industrialization coupled with genuine land reform and agricultural modernization. As a
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result, the Philippines remains a mere producer-supplier-exporter of raw materials and
human resources (OFWs).
K to 12: Diamond Chains and Life-long Dependency
If the real agenda of K to 12 in the Philippines will be scrutinized, it can be
easily proven that it will only expand and worsen the country’s dependence on
developed countries, through the maintenance of the labor export policy.
The document “DISCUSSION PAPER ON THE ENHANCED K+12 BASIC
EDUCATION PROGRAM” released by the Department of Education (DepEd) on
Oktubre 5, 2010, the 12-page primer “The K to 12 Program” (October 30, 2012)
published in the Republic of the Philippines online Official Gazette, and the 73-page “K
TO 12 TOOLKIT: Reference Guide for Teacher Educators, School Administrators, and
Teachers (2012)” released by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization
Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO-INNOTECH)
with the imprimatur of the Department of Education.
DepEd’s “Discussion Paper” notes one of the main reason behind the
implementation of the K to 12 (emphasis is theirs): “The short duration of the basic
education program also puts the millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs),
especially the professionals, and those who intend to study abroad at a disadvantage.
Our graduates are not automatically recognized as professionals abroad. Filipinos face
mutual recognition problem in other countries that view the 10-year education program
as insufficient. The Philippines is the only country in Asia and among the three
remaining countries in the world that has a 10-year basic education program. The
Washington Accordiv prescribes 12-year basic education as an entry to recognition of
engineering professionals. The Bologna Accord requires 12 years of education for
university admission and practice of profession in European countries.” (p. 4)
Following “global standards,” catering to the needs of foreigners is the
expressed reason of promoting K to 12 according to p.8 of DepEd’s “Discussion Paper”
that seems to echo what was mentioned in p.4 (emphasis is theirs): “Graduates could
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now be recognized abroad. Filipino graduates, e.g. engineers, architects, doctors, etc.,
could now be recognized as professionals in other countries. Those who intend to study
abroad will meet the entrance requirements of foreign schools. The Philippine education
system will be at par with international standards. K+12 will facilitate mutual recognition
of Filipino graduates and professionals following the Washington Accord and the
Bologna Accord.”
In the primer available at the Official Gazette of the republic, three
answers were given to the question “Why are we implementing 12 years of Basic
Education and not 11 years?” on page 7: “A 12-year program is found to be the
adequate period for learning under basic education. It is also a standard for recognition
of students and/or professionals abroad (i.e., the Bologna Process for the European
Union and the Washington Accord for the United States). Other countries like Singapore
have 11 years of compulsory education, but have 12 to 14 years of pre-university
education depending on the track. The Philippines is the last country in Asia and one of
only three countries worldwide with a 10-year pre-university cycle.”
The content of DepEd’s “Discussion Paper” and the primer in the Official Gazette
merely echo page 6 of the “K to 12 Toolkit” ng SEAMEO-INNOTECH that states that K
to 12 produces benefits “for regional and international recognition and competitiveness”
like the following: “As Filipino students learn better, it is expected that the Philippines
will improve its performance in international academic examinations and gain
international recognition of Filipino professionals. Academic degrees of Filipino
graduates will now be recognized in other countries. The K to 12 curriculum ensures
that studies, diplomas, and degrees of Filipinos are recognized as widely as possible.
Significant changes in the world’s education standards brought by globalization
increased cross-border provision, and continued expansion of education that have
resulted in increased quality assurance of education.”
In the deliberations in Congress with regard to the K to 12 scheme on October
17, 2012, the real agenda of the K to 12 is all the more exposed: turn young Filipinos
into workers for developed countries, instead of molding and training them to serve their
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country. To the question posed by Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino on
courses or career pathways that can be chosen by students in the senior high
school/junior college (Grades 11 at 12), Rep. Rosenda Ann Ocampo of the 6 th District of
Manila gave this reply: “…the identification of the course offering under the K to 12
program is dictated upon the need, and also upon the job markets as they exist.
Definitely, the industrialized and richer countries have an aging population that need to
be cared for, and that is the reason we offer caregiving courses.”
Rep. Palatino asked another question to clarify one of the objectives of K to 12:
“…The Sponsor (Rep. Ocampo) mentioned that industrialized nations need a lot of
workers; maybe, they should educate their people and produce enough number of
graduates for their own needs, but the basic education of the Philippines should serve
the needs of the Filipino people in the Philippines. So, we should be careful before we
introduce some courses or topics which would benefit not our country but more for the
benefit of other countries. This is one of the reasons K to 12 is being criticized because,
apparently, it will equip students with skills for them to find enough work, not in the
country, but to push them out of the country. So, is that one of the objectives of the K to
12, to equip students with skills so that they can work in other countries, Mr. Speaker?”
Rep. Ocampo gave a frank reply that further exposed the true agenda of K to 12,
which is to turn the Philippines into a huge factory of OFWs: “one of the main objectives
of K to 12 is to make our students graduate with employable skills. If the end result is
that our graduates end up getting jobs abroad, who are we to say that aspiring to land a
job abroad is not something that many families in our country today aspire for? If the
end result of K to 12 gives them the skills to land that job, then we are addressing a
need and we are equipping our people, and that, I believe, will ensure a better life for
their families.” In Rep. Thelma Z. Almario (2nd District of Davao Oriental) interpellation
directed to Rep. Ocampo, the latter confirmed that following global standards if one the
main agenda of K to 12. In general, it is clear that the K to 12 scheme won’t turn Filipino
students into patriots like Rizal, Bonifacio, Jacinto, or Constantino. Instead, under K to
12, students are right away encouraged, actually molded, manufactured as workers for
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other countries, instead of helping to strengthen local industries towards national
progress.
Beyond the maintenance of the labor export policy, the K to 12 na is also aimed
at “accelerating” the “manufacture” of workers for foreign business through its implicit
encouragement for students to no longer enroll in college. In page 5 of the primer in the
Official Gazette, pathways from which students may choose after senior high school are
mentioned (emphasis supplied): “...every K to 12 graduate will be ready to go into
different paths – may it be further education, employment, or entrepreneurship.” On
page 5 of the “K to 12 Toolkit” published by SEAMEO-INNOTECH, the mantra of
encouraging poor students not to study college and instead work immediately after
senior high school is all the more direct: “Families can better afford education as the
cost of the additional two years in high school is significantly lower than longer
collegiate or university level.” A former DepEd undersecretary who supports the K to 12,
Dr. Isagani Cruz, had the same idea: “Once the two missing years are added to basic
education, however, there will be time for the system to give students the skills to find
jobs or become entrepreneurs.” In the “briefer” prepared by DepEd (November 2, 2010)
and posted on the online Official Gazette of the republic, the following 8 reasons behind
the K to 12 are enumerated: “give” the poor families an “employable child” in a short
span. DepEd is trying to package K ton 12 as a “minus 2 instead of plus 2” program that
they claim is a “win scenario” for families who are not capable of sending their children
to college. In the government’s view, under the K to 12, it’s only necessary to spend for
2 years of senior high school instead of four years of college, for poor families to have
an “employable child.” According to Nick Tenazas, a consultant of the Asian
Development Bank (ADB): “If a credible high school diploma can be earned at age 186,
students will have another career option aside from college...” A similar objective was
praised too by the World Bank Philippines Quarterly Update (March 2012): “...ensuring
the successful implementation of the K-12 program which shifts the country’s education
system from the current 10 years to 12 years plus kindergarten to bring basic education
at par with world standards, enabling high school graduates to qualify for employment
even without a college degree.”6 Average age of senior high school graduates under the K to 12.
15
In general, tragedy will be the end result of the anti-tertiary education mantra that
the pro-K to 12 elements are propagating. It is baffling that pro-K to 12 advocates seem
not to regard tertiary education as important when it is observable that many developed
countries have high levels of tertiary enrollment, while poor countries have low levels of
enrollment as seen in a graph from p.14 of the World Bank East Asia and Pacific
Regional Report (2012) entitled “Putting Higher Education to Work: Skills and Research
for Growth in East Asia7”:
The K to 12 scheme will certainly maintain and probably worsen the poor’s lack
of access to tertiary education, which has been bad even before the K to 12 expanded
secondary/pre-university education. The data below shows the percentage of the
population in every socio-economic level that finished college. Because K to 12
extended the pre-university years, it is expected that more poor students would no
longer study college and would become “slaves” of foreign corporations forever –
lacking socio-economic mobility, lacking progress lacking professional development. It
is now clear why pro-K to 12 advocates discourage students from entering college: so
7 This report emphasized that no country achieved high levels of income without increasing the number of their college enrollees and graduates.
16
that they will be mired in poverty and remain incapable of lifting themselves out of the
quicksand of wretchedness while the unjust “social pyramid8” dominated by the
moneyed sector of society in the past decades.
8 The existence of the “social pyramid” in the Philippines is clear as per the presentation of Mr . Tomas Africa, former administrator of the National Statistics Office (NSO), entitled “Family Income Distribution in the Philippines, 1985-2009: Essentially the Same.” According to his presentation, the income share of the bottom 50% and the upper 50% of the country’s population from 1961 to 2009 almost did not change.
17
It must be emphasized that developed countries usually have many citizens who
finish college, hence they are able to sustain their economic development as observed
from the two graphs below:
18
The graph below is from the online Public Data Explorer of the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) 2012. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a holistic
measure of development. A score of 1.0 means perfect human development, and a
score of 0.0 means ho development.
19
In the past school year, the number of Filipinos who enter colleges is increasing
but this is not comparable to the number of those who study and finish college in other
countries. After the implementation of K to 12, the decrease in the number of those who
study college is certain – because of the anti-tertiary education mantra mouthed by pro-
K to 12 elements in the Philippines – and it is also certain that the number of those who
finish college will also decrease, all the more because the K to 12 scheme mentions
nothing about increasing the subsidy for state colleges and universities (SUCs) so as to
rollback the tuition fees in the said schools to which poor students usually enroll. Upon
the decrease in the number of those studying college, the number of Filipino citizens
who are capable of becoming administrators will also decrease, because administrative
positions require high levels of education. As the country’s population soars, it needs
more and more administrators in various fields, hence, in general, the impact of the
decreasing number of college enrollees and graduates on the Philippines is negative.
20
Consciousness in Chains: MTB-MLE and Language and Curricular Issues
Aside from the anti-tertiary education mantra of K to 12 in the Philippines, some
aspects of this program can be likened to chains in the consciousness and tongue of
the peiple – a continuation of the “miseducation” of Filipinos. It must be noted that ALL
official documents on K to 12, including most lectures, trainings, workshops, and
seminars on K to 12 are in English! From the very start, it seems to instantly alienate
and sideline majority of Filipinos who don’t use English for intellectual discourse. It is
interesting to know to whom the government “communicated” when they planned the K
to 12 scheme. AusAid, the aid agency of Australia) bragged in its “Philippines Annual
Program Performance Report 2011” released on July 2012 that “In 2011 Australia
consolidated its reputation with the Philippines Department of Education as a highly
regarded, effective and influential partner in basic education reform, and an important
source of evidence-based advice on technical aspects of implementing the new K to 12
policy.” According to a critique of the K to 12 released by the Alliance of Concerned
Teachers (ACT) on July 2012, the K to 12 curriculum’s “...seven related themes that will
guide the whole Social Science curriculum are directly lifted from the themese formed
by the National Council for Social Studies of the United States. The main references of
the kindergarten curriculum planners are also from the United States:: Copple, Carol
and Bredecamp, Sue. eds. Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood
Program: Serving Children from Birth through age Eight., USA: National Association for
the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 2009.; Marjorie et al. Developmentally
Appropriate Curriculum: Best Practices in Early Childhood Education. USA: Pearson
Education Inc., 2011.”
In the elementary level, the Mother-Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-
MLE) isn now being implemented as part and parcel of the K to 12 scheme. It is aimed
at using some mother tongues from Grade 1 to Grade 3 as primary medium of
instruction. The half-baked and misleading MLE-MTB is problematic. One, it mandates
the use of Bahasa Sug, Bikol, Cebuano, Chabacano, Hiligaynon, Iloko, Kapampangan,
Maguindanaoan, Meranao, Pangasinense, Tagalog, and Waray only (though it is said
that 2 more languages will be added this year, and in the coming years, more
21
languages will be utilized). This means more than 90 mother tongues in the Philippines
won’t be used. Secondly, no one has so far explained why the mother tongues will be
used as primary medium of instruction at a time when majority of children are now good
in using Filipino (the national language) as they are very exposed to this language
because of various media. In fact, there’s enough evidence to claim that Filipino is now
the default language if many children in the regions, because of its advances as an
academic field and as a medium of instruction for various subjects. The use of Filipino
as a national language is now very widespread even in the regions hence its use in the
primary level and beyond should be encouraged. Fourthly, the situation of those in
esclusive private schools, especially those in the National Capital Region: they might
claim the English is their mother tongue. The existence of such language gap between
the masses and the elite (which Constantino had tackled) would be maintained and
tolerated by the MTB-MLE. Fifthly, the government has no plan for people who just
emigrated to the regions. For example, what will happen to Tagalog speakers who
came to Davao? Will they be forced to use Cebuano, together with their classmates
who are mostly Cebuano speakers? Or will the government hire a separate teacher who
would teach them in Tagalog? What if only one or two students are in such situation,
and hence it would be impractical to hire a separate teacher for them? This is an
extreme case but in the real world, extreme cases do occur Some students will be
disenfranchised and marginalized because of MTB-MLE, and it will also weaken the use
of Filipino – which is currently (still) strong – at the elementary level. The next two tables
from the “K to 12 Toolkit” published by SEAMEO-INNOTECH are instructive:
22
DeFilipinization in the tertiary level under the K to 12 scheme is worse. No
Filipino subject is mandated in the new General Education Curriculum (GEC) in the
university level, under the K to 12 scheme. Proponents say majority of subjects in the
old GEC will be transferred to senior high school/junior college. The contents of the
Revised General Education Curriculum (RGEC) for the university level based on a
presentation (29 August 2012) by DepEd Assistant Secretary Tonisito M. C. Umali, Esq.
clearly prove that the current curriculum is not nationalist-oriented. All subjects are in
English, and hence English would become the primary medium of instruction still, and
Filipino subjects are all but wiped out.
23
In general, the K to 12 scheme is pro-English because it strengthens the
hegemony of English as primary medium of instruction, all the more, in the higher levels
of education, despite the fact that Filipino is ready to be used as a medium of instruction
at all levels, as proven by the high scores of students in Filipino in the National
Achievement Test, and the increasing number of people who say Tagalog or Filipino is
the language they use at home.
Here’s data9 listing the national mean percentage scores of elementary students
in English and Filipino in the National Achievement Test (NAT):
Performance sa NAT ng mga Estudyante sa Grade 3
School Year English Filipino
2009-2010 61.84 62.595
2010-2011 57.755 63.03
9Mula sa http://netrc.sysportal.net
24
2011-2012 55.825 57.79
Meanwhile, here’s data from the National Statistics Office (2012) highlighting the
increasing number of Filipinos who say Tagalog (the main source of Filipino’s corpus or
vocabularies) is their mother tongue:
25
Under the K to 12 scheme, there’s no provision for any Political Science subject.
In the old GEC, the study of the Philippine Government and Constitution is a
constitutional requirement. Such education system would produce students who would
just go with the flow, individualistic citizens whose only dream is to go abroad . Simoun’s
prophecy has come to pass about a country without identity, a nation of slaves, and the
dreams for the country of Rizal, Jacinto, Bonifacio and Constantino – a free country with
its own consciousness, a country with citizens who actively participate in achieving
progress for their country, a country where citizens live by and implement the maxim
“The nation first, before yourself” – seemed to be out of reach.
K to 12 As A Road to Perdition: Towards A Mountain of Debts
One of the main reasons of some representatives in opposing the K to 12
scheme is the lack of sufficient budget for its implementation. According to Rep.
Almario, the government needs the following amount just to implement the Education
For All (EFA) goals which the Philippines is yet to achieve: 2013 – P334 billion; 2014 –
P344 billion; 2015 – P360 billion; 2016 – P409 billion; and for 2017 – P434 billion. Rep.
Almario believes attaining the EFA goals must be prioritized (which means all school-
26
age children and youth must be enrolled in the elementary and the secondary level)
before the government decides to add two more years to the old 10-year Basic
Education Cycle. Aside from this, according to Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV, the
K to 12 requires “P150 billion for 152,569 new classrooms, 103,599 more teachers, 95.6
million more books, and 13.2 million more seats.” The DepEd itself has admitted that
the government is yet to provide for all insufficiencies in personnel and resources for
public schools, as observed from the primer available at the online Official Gazette of
the republic:
DepEd’s prediction that deficiencies will be wiped out at the end of 2013 is
somewhat too optimistic, because according to a critique10 published by the Alliance of
Concerned Teachers (ACT) on July 10, 2012, public schools still lack 132,483 teachers,
97,685 classrooms, and 153,709 sanitation facilities for academic year 2012-2013 and
the Philippine government allotted only P239 billion for DepEd, which is equivalent to
only P7/day for every student. The said teachers’ organization further remarked that this
amount is enough only to resolve 27% of the deficiencies for classrooms, 20% for
chairs, and 12% for new teachers. This is of course on top of more than P100 billion
needed to implement the K to 12 scheme. ACT further notes that “Based on the latest
National Budget Memorandum 113 of the Department of Budget and Management
(DBM), the budget ceiling for DepED for 2013 is pegged at P259.25B but DepED
10 Downloadable at http://www.scribd.com/doc/100173820/Alliance-of-Concerned-Teachers-ACT-Critique-of-and-Call-to-Action-on-PNoy-s-K-to-12
27
requires a budget of P321.91B. One big question that hounds the Aquino administration
is where to get an additional P78.95 B to supply everything that DepEd needs for 2013.”
Even the World Bank, in its PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY UPDATE (July 2012) admitted
that “basic education budget per student has been persistently low (in the Philippines),
fluctuating within the PhP5,000 – PhP6,000 band in real terms (measured in 2000
prices) since 2000, while school-age population has been growing rapidly. As the
education budget has yet to catch up with population growth, schools still cannot find
sufficient space to teach their children.”
It is thus clear that the Philippine government has no sufficient fund for the
budgetary requirement in implementing the K to 12 scheme. Page 1 of the K to 12
primer at the Official Gazette reveals how DepEd intends to fund the Aquino
administration’s centerpiece educational reform: “One scheme for Senior High School is
to front-load all needed capital investments, take a grant or loan from government and
private banks based on annual budget, and pay the amortization yearly. We also have
the support of local government units and private partners to build the needed
infrastructure.” In simpler terms, the Philippine government will acquire loans to finance
the K to 12 scheme.
It is not surprising that the World Bank supports K to 12. In a “Country Assistance
Strategy (CAS) Progress Report” of the World Bank Group (Abril 20, 2011), it is stated
that “...(the Philippine government) is also considering extending the basic education
cycle from 10 to 12 years under the DepEd‘s Enhanced K to 12 Basic Education
Program,” and for this, the World Bank promised “to sustain technical support and
assistance to the reforms in partnership with AusAID and others...Ongoing and
proposed Bank operations are being aligned to this new policy context and the
challenges brought about by the major policy decision to change the basic education
cycle.” Hence, the World Bank is ready to finance the K to 12 Program despite the fact
that it doesn’t like to provide loans for any industrialization scheme such as petroleum
refineries, gold mines, steel mills etc.
According to Section 13 of the K to 12 Bill or House Bill 6643 (emphasis is
supplied): “The Secretary of Education shall immediately include in the Department’s
28
program the operationalization of the enhanced basic education program, the initial
funding of which shall be charged against the current appropriations of the DepED.
Thereafter, the amount necessary for the continued implementation of the enhanced
basic education program shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act.”
Because any deficit in the national budget (contained in the annual General
Appropriations Act) is normally plugged by debts, it is now certain that the K to 12 will all
the more make the country indebted to its foreign creditors.
Alternatives to K to 12
In general, instead of immediately implementing the K to 12 scheme, the
researcher suggests the improvement or the overhaul of the current 11-year Basic
Education cycle (Kindergarten, Grades 1 to 6 at Grades 7 to 10) and additional
investments for state colleges and universities, and to the whole education sector.
Allotting sufficient budget for education is the first step to improve the 11-year Basic
Education cycle. Currently, the Philippines is an outlier when it comes to the percentage
of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allotted to education. As per the standards of the
United Nations (UN), at least 6% of the GDP must be allotted to education. Notice that
the Philippines did not even reach the minimum standard in the past years as data from
the Public Data Explorer in the website of the UNDP comparing statistics from the
Philippines and from developed countries would attest (India was inadvertently added in
the list due to a technical glitch which the researcher was unable to correct in
processing data via the United Nations’ Public Date Explorer):
29
Meanwhile, here’s the data comparing the Philippines’ education budget and the
education budgets of poorer countries:
30
Hence, the additional budget that would be allotted to the K to 12 scheme will be
better spent for improving the current 11-year Basic Education cycle first. Debates on
whether to add 2 more years in high school should start once the 11-year Basic
Education cycle from Kindergarten to Grade 10 is perfected.
Additional investments in the tertiary level, more especially in the fields of
research and development (R&D) are also important. The Philippines lags behind many
countries when it comes to R&D expenditures, hence the country is also weak in
innovation and modernization of technologies in education and other fields, as data from
the World Bank East Asia and Pacific Regional Report (2012) “Putting Higher Education
to Work Skills and Research for Growth in East Asia” would prove:
31
Additional budget for the tertiary level is important in ensuring that more students
will finish their schooling. It has been proven that the “rate of return” of investment in
studying in college and beyond is huge, as contained in a World Bank Report entitled
“Skills for the Labor Market in the Philippines” by Emanuela di Gropello, Hong Tan and
Prateek Tandon (2010):
32
According to World Bank East Asia and Pacific Region Poverty Reduction and
Economic Management Department Report entitled “Education and Wage Differentials
in the Philippines” (Xubei Luo at Takanobu Terada, 2009): “Tertiary education is to a
large extent a prerequisite for high-paid occupations.” Thus, it is now established that
the anti-college education mantra of the K to 12 advocates will not be beneficial to the
country in the long run.
In the PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY UPDATE of the World Bank entitled “Investing
in Inclusive Growth Amid Global Uncertainty” (July 2012), the following statistics on
college graduate income are tallied:
Therefore, instead of encouraging students not to study in college under the K to
12 scheme, the government must maximize investments in tertiary education so as to
attract more students to enroll and finish their college degress. This is one of the keys to
33
progress, as proven by developed nations. A country with highly educated citizens
would certainly enjoy high levels if sustainable growth in the long run.
Reoryentasyon ng Edukasyon at Ekonomya
Any additional budget for education will be useless unless the education and
economic systems of the country are not reoriented. We can change the subjects as
frequent as we can but we should emphasize inculcating nationalism in the hearts and
minds of Filipinos so that our citizens would be transformed into citizens who can fulfill
the dreams of Rizal, Bonifacio, Jacinto and Constantino: citizens who work for their
country’s progress. Hence, the country’s labor export policy must be scrapped, including
the related policy that treats schools in the Philippines as mere manufacturers of
workers and professionals for export.
To complement such endeavors, job opportunities within the country must be
broadened through implementing a comprehensive economic plan that focuses on self-
reliance or self-dependence. This can be done through national/nationalist
industrialization, agrarian reform, and modernization of agriculture. Hence, the
Philippines must utilize its resources for its own citizens’ progress, and not merely as
exports to other countries. The Philippines has all natural and human resources needed
by a country to become developed and powerful. These resources are waiting for
Filipinos who are ready to endeavor to use such resources for the country’s welfare,
and not merely for the welfare of foreigners.
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