Right now, I’m attending (and live blogging) Huntahan: A Discussion on the Proposed K-12 Basic Education Program of the Philippines. The Huntahan is being held at the UP College of Education Benitez Theater.
Here are some excerpts from the slides presented by Dr. Muega:
Moving From 10-year Into A 12-Year Basic Education Cycle
Basic issues to address:
1. Should we immediately add – because it’s an urgent matter – two more years to basic education cycle? If yes, what are the new things that students must learn before graduating from basic education?
2. What are the implications of adding two more years to the current cycle of 10 years? What are the positive and negative consequences of adding two more years to the current basic education cycle?
Positive implications and possible positive consequences should be widely acceptable and realistic, i.e., not just beautiful sounding promises that could not be CLEARLY shown to be achievable by the proponents. Positive implications and possible positive consequences should also outweigh the negative implications and possible negative consequences.
3. Are there options, aside from extending the current basic education cycle, that may turn out to be more BENEFICIAL TO all the graduates of public basic education schools?
Never look at the other nations as our models. Our educational system should be responsive to our own pressing needs in the country. It is not the duty of our government to turn out professionals whose education and training are at par with their counterparts in other nations. We train and educate to address our own needs, first and foremost.
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My proposed solution if we are seriously interested in turning out employable young adults:
* Expand TESDA so we could accommodate more high school graduates who are planning to pursue vocational career paths
* Give college students the option to finish first their professional education and pass the licensure exam, if any, in their first few years in college before they finish their general education. Those who could finish their professional education and satisfy licensure requirements, if any, may be allowed to practice their profession even if they have yet to finish their general education.
I just hope that they’ll upload the minutes of the discussion online and continue the discourse by crowd-sourcing the topic. 
UPDATE: Here’s an e-copy of DepEd’s discussion paper on the enhanced K-12 Basic Education program.
It looks like if nothing else, this got the discourse started. That is something! I hope the conversation and planning has continued.
,mag gagaraduate na ko ng grade 6 dadag dagan nyo pa
pagod na kong mag aral ng elementary
It’s better to give more budget on public colleges w/c is now a days getting more popular and accommodate a lot of students. Problem with the public colleges is that they don’t have enough budget from government to improve their facilities, laboratories and buildings. 64B is a big budget, it’s better to use it to improve our state university and public colleges. I think K+12 is not yet the answer for our deteriorating education.
that’s right…to make it more competitive to other private colleges.
gobyerno talaga palagi na lang kinu kompara at nangongopya sa systema ng ibang bansa. Hindi lahat ng problema pare pareho ang solusyon, kun ang K+12 na solusyon ng ibang bansa ay effective sa kanila hindi ibig sabihin na epektibo din sa atin…a lot of factors that need to be consider.
hindi nga kayo makapagpatayo ng mga bagong gusali sa public schools, 50+ student na kami noon nag graduate ako ng high school at 1998 pa yun, iwan ko kun ilan na studyante sa isang section pagkalipas ng sampung taon…