What is the K to 12 Program?

The K to 12 Program covers 13 years of basic education with the following key stages:
Kindergarten to Grade 3
Grades 4 to 6
Grades 7 to 10 (Junior High School)
Grades 11 and 12 (Senior High School)
Why implement 12 years of basic education?
- The Philippines is the last country in Asia and one of only three countries worldwide with a 10-year
pre-university cycle (Angola and Djibouti are the other two).
- A 12-year program is found to be the best period for learning under basic education. It is also the
recognized standard for students and professionals globally.
What has been done to get ready for K to 12? Are we really ready for K to 12?
SY 2011-2012: Universal Kindergarten implementation begins
SY 2012-2013: Enhanced curriculum for Grades 1-7 implemented
2013: K to 12 enacted into Law
2014: Curriculum for Grades 11-12 finished
This 2015, we are getting ready for the implementation of Senior High School (SHS) in SY 20162017.
We are on the fifth year of the implementation of the K to 12 Program. Our last mile is the Senior
High School. All 221 divisions of the Department of Education (DepEd) have finished planning and
have figures on enrolment a year in advance. These plans were reviewed by a separate team and
finalized upon consultation with other stakeholders.
Classrooms: DepEd has built 66,813 classrooms from 2010 to 2013. There are 33,608 classrooms
completed and undergoing construction in 2014. As of DepEd is planning to establish 5,899 Senior High
Schools nationwide. As of April 30, 2015, DepEd has issued provisional permits to 1,866 private schools set
to offer Senior High School in 2016.
Teachers: From 2010-2014, DepEd has filled 128,105 new teacher items. DepEd is targeting two kinds of
teachers: those who will teach the core subjects, and those who will teach the specialized subjects per
track. DepEd will hire 37,000 teachers for Senior High School for 2016 alone.
Textbooks: Learning materials are being produced for elementary to junior high while textbooks for Senior
High School (which has specialized subjects) are being bid out.
Curriculum: The K to 12 curriculum is standards- and competence-based. It is inclusive and built around
the needs of the learners and the community. The curriculum is done and is available on the DepEd
website. It is the first time in history that the entire curriculum is digitized and made accessible to the
public.
Private SHS: There are 2,199 private schools cleared to offer Senior High School and over 200 more being
processed.
How will K to 12 affect the college curriculum?
The College General Education curriculum will have fewer units. Subjects that have been taken up
in Basic Education will be removed from the College General Education curriculum.
Details of the new GE Curriculum may be found in CHED Memorandum Order No. 20, series of 2013.

Benefits of the K-12 curriculum for Filipino Students

The Rationale
Prior to the implementation of the K-12 curriculum guide, the Philippines was one of only three countries in
the world and the only one in Asia that still had only 10 years in basic education.
This has always been seen as a disadvantage for our students who are competing in an increasingly global
job market. The longer educational cycle of the K-12 curriculum is seen as critical in giving Filipino students
a higher quality of education.
The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Innotech (SEAMEO-Innotech) found the previous
10-year educational cycle to be congested, with a 12-year curriculum squished into 10 years.
As a result, Filipino students have trailed behind students around the world in the areas of math, languages
and science. The new curriculum is aimed to fix that.
The K-12 curriculum is designed to enable graduates to join the work force right after high school, and
suitably prepare those who want to go on to higher education.
The new curriculum will also support college graduates seeking work abroad. Developed countries,
according to the Department of Educations (DepEd) briefer, view the 10-year education cycle as
insufficient.
All in all, the enhanced K-12 curriculum is designed to provide a holistic education for all. Now
decongested, it will give students ample time to master basic academic skills as well as to participate in
co-curricular and community activities.
What it means for students
The transition began in 2011, when the universal kindergarten was introduced. Starting in 2012, schools
already implemented the curriculum decongestion mentioned in the DepEd briefer.
Public schools began having half-day classes for grade one students, with the mother tongue as the
medium of instruction. Private schools also made adjustments in their own DepEd accredited curricula.
The adaptation of the K-12 curriculum guide means that students will graduate a bit older compared to
those who graduated under the 10-year education cycle.
Far from being disadvantageous, however, DepEd states that young adults graduating at age 18 or so will
be more prepared to take on their tertiary education.
Remedial classes during the first year of college will no longer be needed, as the high school curriculum
will already be aligned with the Commission on Higher Educations (CHED) guidelines.
The government also encourages parents to think of the K-12 curriculum guide not as having two extra
years of high school, but as two years less of higher education.
Graduates of the new educational system will already be equipped to join the workforce right away with
the help of the electives to be offered during grades 11 to 12.
The electives, or areas of specialization, will include academics for those who wish to pursue higher
studies, technical-vocational for those who want to acquire employable skills after high school, and sports
and arts for those who are inclined in the two fields.
Change is never easy, especially when it is about a big undertaking such as the implementation of the new
K-12 curriculum guide in the Philippines. It is high time, however, that we join the rest of the world and
improve the quality of our basic education system and our graduates.

So what exactly is the nature of the K-12 curriculum and how does it differ from the previous 10-year basic education curriculum?

Aside from the additional two years of Senior High School (SHS), the K-12 program totally restructures the basic education system in
the country, aiming to provide some solutions to the widespread unemployment of the youth. As Isagani Cruz put it, The whole point of
the entire K to 12 reform is to answer the needs of about 30 million young people (those below 24 years of age) who have not finished
Fourth Year High School. Of the out-of-school youth of employable age, more than six million are unemployed, primarily because they
do not have the skills that employers want.
The two years of SHS consists of two parts: Track Subjectscovering the development of skills for immediate employment or
entrepreneurship, and Core Subjectsto ensure college readiness of K-12 graduates. It also facilitates four career tracks for students
to choose from: Academic, Technical-Vocational-Livelihood, Sports, and Art & Design.
The four different career tracks provide flexibility. Depending on the goals of the student, as well as the community and industry
requirements in a particular region, the Track Subject Curriculum enhances the value and relevance of the high school diploma. Equally
important, the Core Subject Curriculum,remaining invariable for all schools,provides an opportunity for everyone to be equally wellprepared for a college education academically.
By integrating the awarding of TESDA National Certificates at the high school level, K-12 studentsnow of employable age upon
graduationwould already qualify for decent entry-level jobs. This also increases the financial capabilities of high school graduates
who desire to pursue advancement through higher education.
Moreover, the SHS curriculum also addresses the redundancy of college-level general education programs, which presently cover
material that should have already been mastered at the pre-university level. This can result in higher education institutions being more
focused on the specifics of various degrees, rather that consuming so much of the first two years remedying the inadequate
competencies of the old 10-year program.
The K-12 curriculum is the present world standard and would be too difficult, if not impossible, to compress into only 10 years. Globally,
the Philippines remains far behind, the only Asian countryand one of only three countries in the worldproviding only 10 years of
basic education.
Inevitably, there are also downside implications resulting from this shift in the education system.
With the introduction of K-12, there will be an increase in student population, translating into a requirement for 20,000 to 28,000
additional classrooms for each additional year-level; 40,000 to 56,000 classrooms for the two years of SHS.Another pressing issue is
the retrenchment of teaching and non-teaching college personnel. An estimated 25,000 are being held at bay.
DepEd, however, says that it has closed the gap of 66,800 classroom shortage in 2010 and has built 86,478 classrooms between 2010
to 2014. This year, an additional 27,499 classrooms are on line to be constructed to cover the SHS implementation in 2016.
DepEd has announced that it will be hiring 39,000 additional teachers in 2016 to meet the personnel requirements of the program. This
demand for SHS teachers is proposed as mitigation for the faculty lay-offs in higher education institutions. This is an important point,
since many junior faculty look to their teaching careers for funding to pursue higher academic degrees. Thus, the roughly 50 percent cut
in pay that comes from the move from college to SHS teaching is particularly bad news.
But, besides student and teacher concerns, there is a third factor: the additional cost to parents for food and transportation expenses to
send their children for two more years of high school.
Worsening parental expenses, well over half5800 out of 7,976of the nations public high schools are set to implement SHS.As a
result, DepEd is in talks with 2,000 private education institutions to accommodate incoming seniors that would not be able to attend
public SHS schools. The current plan is for DepEd to subsidize the cost of private tuitionbut this is one of the most controversial
issues around RA 10533s implementation. Many parentsand otherscomplain that the proposed subsidizes are too low and will

constitute their childs high school diploma being held hostage to costs they might find impossible to meet. Still others object to giving a
taxpayer financed windfall to private schools.

All these complaints are valid. Until recently, our school system has suffered much neglect in many areas, including a chronic shortage
of classrooms. Likewise, the almost criminally low pay our public schoolteachers receive is scandalous. There is a very serious loss of
junior college teachers as wellmany of whom are pursuing higher degrees that will benefit the nation. That they should be forced into
lower paying jobs even as they struggle to advance needs to be dealt withit is an all-too-typical example of how neoliberal pressures
such as privatization can gut the aspirations of a developing country and force it into the race to the bottom that has become a
linchpin of globalization.
Among teachers, there are deep-seated anxieties about the new duties expected of them. DepEd has been conducting numerous
teacher trainings to address these concerns, but there is a sense that things remain confused and unsettled. Most likely, uneasiness
and suspicion among teachers will linger until the new system is in place and they have a chance to actually work through it and make
the needed adjustments. In addition, there still remains the problem of language: what to do with Filipino, how to sustain its place in the
curriculum, and what will the changes mean for teaching the language in colleges and universities? For that matter, has the English
curriculum been chosen in haste, as some critics allege? What of the adequacy and quality of some of our textbooks and instructional
materials? Can schools coordinate better to strengthen job placement for their students?
Likewise, tuition costs for parents whose children have no public SHS available should not hold those students hostage to the financial
capabilities of the parents. That is not what we mean when we talk about public education as a constitutional right. And, sadly, anytime
large sums of government money are being passed out, we come face to face with the ubiquitous problems of potential corruption.
Parents wait for their children outside the gates of President Corazon Aquino Elementary School in Quezon City at the opening of
classes, June 2, 2014. AP/Bullit Marquez
All that said, I still tend toward proceeding with K-12. The K-10 approach is as problematic asindeed, is part ofthe continued
neglect our public educational system has suffered since the Marcos years. It is time and past time to begin making amends.
We should not ignore the serious challenges of shifting to a K-12 program. At the same time, we should seize upon its very real
potential to improve the lives of everyone. K-12 is obviously a work in progress that will go through many changes as it is implemented.
Top-down planning will invariably be reshaped and modified by bottom-up concerns and existing practices of teaching and
learning.What remains imperative is that we provide our youth with all the skills they need, especially education, to prepare them to live
meaningful and productive lives. This means, among other things, preparing for the constantly changing demands of the workplace. But
they should also be able to question those changes and craft alternatives for a better world. There are many problems to be fixed in
education and we should pursue these solutions with zeal. To do so means dealing with the many challenges of K-12 rather than simply
putting them on hold.