Before I give my opinion on this, let us try to define first what is K12. K12 is a term used in education from the first world countries. It refers to grades from kindergarten (K) and the 1st through the 12th grade (1-12). This setup might be familiar with other people. It is even a normal setup for many. However, in the Philippines, it is a different setting. Primary education here starts from nursery up to kindergarten. There's nursery 1 and 2, kindergarten 1 and 2, grades 1 to 6, and for the high school, it's from 1st year to 4th year. The following is a usual age mapping for these education levels:
Age Level
3 Nursery 1
4 Nursery 2
5 Kinder 1
6 Kinder 2
7 Grade 1
8 Grade 2
9 Grade 3
14 2nd year high school
15 3rd year high school
16 4th year high school
-----------------------------------
17 1st year college
18 2nd year college
19 3rd year college
20 4th year college
If this is to be converted to K12, then it will be transformed into the following setup:
Age Level
3 Nursery 1
4 Nursery 2
5 Kinder 1
6 Kinder 2
7 Grade 1
8 Grade 2
9 Grade 3
10 Grade 4
11 Grade 5
12 Grade 6
13 1st year high school14 2nd year high school
15 3rd year high school
16 4th year high school
-----------------------------------
17 1st year college
18 2nd year college
19 3rd year college
20 4th year college
If this is to be converted to K12, then it will be transformed into the following setup:
Age Level
3 Nursery 1
4 Nursery 2
5 Kinder 1
6 Kinder 2
7 Grade 1
8 Grade 2
9 Grade 3
10 Grade 4
11 Grade 5
12 Grade 6
13 1st year high school --> Grade 7
14 2nd year high school --> Grade 8
15 3rd year high school --> Grade 9
16 4th year high school --> Grade 10
17 Grade 11
18 Grade 12
-----------------------------------
19 1st year college
20 2nd year college
21 3rd year college
22 4th year college
Grades 11 and 12 will be focused on specialized skills in science and technology, music and arts, agriculture and fisheries, sports, business, and entrepreneurship, and others. This will allow (if properly implemented) students to be fully equipped with the necessary skills for working without even going to college.
Can this be the right setup for the Philippine education system? How about for its IT Education? Well, I don't know. I haven't seen a research about this proving that it will be beneficial for the Philippines. If we talk about its advantages, then there are many. Here are a few:
- Adds specialization of skills to a student
- Lets the student acquire more knowledge from the extended years
- Allows the student to think clearly, what career path he/she wants to take
- Students are more mature when they enter college
- College graduates are more equipped with necessary knowledge and skills before engaging into the different work industries
For IT Education, these advantages would certainly be attractive enough to be implemented. This is because IT education requires a lot of technical and soft skills. By technical, I mean hands-on stuff like basic electronics and computer literacy (pre-requisite). Soft skills mean good interpersonal and communication skills (especially English communication skills). Many students enter college and get a Computer Science or Information Technology Course even without these basic skills. Many students are not really prepared when they enter college, and they end up having a really hard time adjusting to the culture and the subjects taken. We cannot even assume that they can already understand what Probability is, or that there is actually a technology called Probability calculator. Many are having trouble with Math and English. Grammar is a major problem and what's ironic is that many end up in call centers. Math is also a very big concern. It probably would be easy for foreign people to find some numbers' Equivalent fractions, or just understand Prime factorization than most kids here. The fact is that kids here really need some reinforced learning.
However, with regards to implementing K12 in this generation, I would opt to disapprove. There are too many concerns with the Philippine education system that had not been solved, and I don't think K12 can solve them. Here are a few:
- There are not enough schools to offer free education to the citizens (where many belong to the working class or are below poverty level).
- There are schools, but there are not enough classrooms. Some schools have more than 50 students in one classroom and they are sharing books and other educational materials.
- There are classrooms but there aren't enough QUALITY teachers because many decide to go abroad for a better pay. There are teachers but some of them are always absent because they are somewhere else trying to make a living.
- There are too many subjects that were supposed to promote patriotism to students (but are NOT effective at all). Many of these subjects in elementary and high school are also repeated in college.
- Government budget for education is limited. This is evident on the many educational establishments where many are just made up of wood and many are not renovated unless they caught fire or are destroyed by storm. Even in college, many universities are supposed to be granted budget for becoming Centers of Development and Centers of Excellence but it's either budget is received but is not given in full, or budget never comes at all.
For me, unless these problems are solved, K12 will only become an additional burden. Only in a stable and much less corrupt governance will this be implemented properly. As of now, the solution really rests on the transformation of the government.
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