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Too early to say if K to 12 is effective or not
HtR A D0-MAI|P0T
By M[Rtlt'{A
As it
continues to review the K
to 12 program, the. DePartment of
Education (DepEd) on Monday said
that it might be "too earlY" to saY
that its implementation is not eI-
fective.
DepEd Undersecretary Tonisito
lFirst
Umali, at the sidelines of the
Future)) appreciation lunch of the
Philippine for Business Education
(PBED) issued a reaction on the
statement of House SPeaker Alan
Peter Cayetano that the K to 12
program needs a review for'(not
living up to its promise" to equip its
graduates with the neqessary skills
for employment.
"We respect what our, SPeaker
ICayetano] said about the assess-
ment on the implementation of
the K to 12 program," sald Umali-
('we assure you that the DePEd
is currently reviewing our K to 12
implementation with resPect to
everything- from curdculum, to the
facilities that we need to proiure and
acquire to efficiently and effectively
implement particularly the SHS por-
tion of the K to 12 Program and the
K to 12 curriculum," he added.
while it welcomes the obser-
vation of the House on the K to 12
program, Umali stressed that the
tool to more ('accurately)' assess
the effective implementation of the
K to 12 program "has not Yet been
completed or finalized.'l
"our first,batch of sHS learn-
ers graduated only in 2018," Umali
said - noting that DepEd is currently
gathering necessarY information
;elated to them. "We need to check
how many graduates were able to
get a iob or how many of them aP-
.
plied for a job and we need to check
also if how many of them went to
college," he added.
Umali noted that another consid-
eration in the assessment is the pos-
of
sible impact of the implenientation
the free tuition law. "It i5 assumed
that many SHS graduates rrlrent to col-
Iege especiatly with the implementa-
tion of the free tuition law, defin.itely
the numbers of those who went to get
college education has increased due to
' this," he explained.
Furthermore, Vmali noted that
there is also a need to check if
students who comPleted SHS in-
deed applied for a job or joined the
workforce. "We need to consider
also that there were students to
help thefu own familY businesses, if
any," he said. one of the exit Points
of SHS, he noted, is entrePreneur-
ship aside from going to college or
getting a iob.
Currently, Umali said that DePEd
and other concerned agencies in the
implemeltation of the K to 12 Pro-
gram are gathering data. "It tould
\ PAG€-€I
be too early to say that our graduates
- who are expected to land on a job -
that they were able to get one or not
because we're still on the process of
gathering our data and information
on this,') he added.
Aside from this, Umali also noted
that there are still challenges that
needed to be addressed, checked and
assessed before "we can fullv sav" if
the K to 12 program is a success or
not. "Kailangan pa natin maghintay
ng kaunti, baka masYadong maaga
pa para sabihin na nangYari na Yung
ating plano ang klaro aY ito aY
- it added:
nangyayari na," he added.
Umali said that bY next Year'
DepEd is planning to release the
initial "update and findings" fol-
lowing the ongoing K to 12 review
'(in line the feedback that we are
getting."
Uttimately, Umali aPPealed to
give the K to t2 "more dme" be-
iore its effectiveness ,is measured.
"lt might too early to say that the
implementation of the K to 12 is not
successful considering that we only
had our first batch of sHS gradu-
ates last year," he said. "We need
to check really how many of them
wanted to get iob after graduating
a
Grade 12 versus those who went to
college or helped their Parents in
their businesses," he ended
Review welcome
In a separate statement issued
- DepEd
by DepEd, the agency welcorned
the plan of the House of Repre-
sentatives to review the effective-
ness of the K to 12 Basic Education
Program.
"congress and DePEd have
worked closely together since the
previous budget hearings to address
ihe issues oflhe K to 12 Program,"
the agency said. 'rA dedicated review
session will provide an appropriate
venue to conprehensivelY discuss
concerns about the Program and
plot out corresponding solutions,"
DepEd noted that with an addi-
tional P65o'miltion in the Proposed
2o2o budget "specificallY for the
improvement" of the rz-Year ba-
sic education program, the agency
'rcommits to coordinate and col-
laborale with the members of the
congress in strategizing effective
implementation" of the Program in
adherence to Republic Ac! No. 10533
or the Erihanced Basic Education
Act of 2013 for the benefit of the
learners.
that
DepEd also exPressed hope
"the outcome of the review will spur
,"n"wea .ommltment and initia-
tives among lawmakers, advocates,
and other stakeholders in aid of re-
alizinq the X to 12 program's overall
goal i hone holisticatly developed
Filipino learners with 21St century
skills."