What now DepEd?
AS A MATTER OF FACT By Sara Soliven De Guzman (The Philippine Star) | March 24, 2014 - 12:00am
I’m actually still keeping my fingers crossed after Education
Secretary Luistro assured us that there will be no changes in the
schedule of the opening of classes in June. As we all know, the
Department of Education has this penchant for giving last minute
instructions to schools. Somehow they have not managed to perfect
foresight in their work.
Even within the school year after all schools have finalized their
school calendars, DepEd supervisors or regional directors have a
tendency to issue memorandums to schools requiring them to join or
create activities pertaining to a particular topic, schedule national
exams on the last minute (without advance notice), submit certain
surveys that need to be on their desk within a given period (short
notice) as if all schools have a magic wand.
When they announced the K-12 educational plan for national growth and
development, they did not even give schools a clear cut guideline on
how proper planning, organization and implementation of this new program
should be done. Schools were forced to randomly create their own
protocols and had to come up with their own solutions jeopardizing the
state of being of each growing student. Sanamagan!
So how will Secretary Luistro prove his worth in the last two years
of P-Noy’s presidency? I thought he was going to change the system. He
only changed the name of the game and added two more levels. The
Department of Education is still the same. It really has not changed.
Maybe on the outside it looks like it did but its old decrepit culture
is still alive and kicking.
Now let’s talk more about P-Noy’s mighty project, the K-12 program. I
know that we restructured our educational system to be at par with the
other nations. Before K-12 was implemented, many private schools were
doing quite well in achieving the literacy skills of their students. The
main problem was that the public schools could not meet the standards
(even if the national achievement exams reflected their ‘false’
strengths but this is another story). Their students continued to have
difficulty with reading, writing and arithmetic. Anyway, now that both
private and public schools were given no choice but to implement this
program, guess who is left behind? The schools that are directly under
the supervision of the agency that started it all. Susmariosep! They
still can’t seem to make heads and tails of the new program.
I guess P-Noy pushed the button too quickly for his pa-pogi points
when he started his term. Mr. President, are you now happy with what has
become of your K-12 program? Do you realize what a hurricane your
administration has created?
Since its conception three years ago, the department has not brought
out a good manual to guide the schools. By the way, are you aware that
you just caused the schools several millions of pesos in restructuring
their programs which include research, teacher training, construction of
additional classrooms/ facilities/ laboratories and purchase of
different equipment? There is definitely a lack of direction and
guidance and a track load full of negligence in the way this program was
handled.
Public and private schools do not have the magic wand to suddenly
create extra classrooms, laboratories and acquire facilities for the
K-12 program. How can schools in the bundoks and isolated islands of our
beautiful archipelago achieve this dream? To this day, we still have
classrooms under a mango tree and you expect this K-12 program to work
in a jiffy? To start with, you did not even bother to do test the
program. Instead you aggressively made the whole country do it hastily
to meet your deadline. Sanamagan!
There is also this urgent, pressing and legitimate concern raised by
many parents of several private schools in the country particularly in
the National Capital Region (NCR) regarding the effects of RA No. 10533,
the "Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013”.
Parents of students who are entering the 8th and 9th grade this
coming June question why their children who went through the same
program as the incoming 10th graders (or fourth year high school) and
the recent high school graduates cannot be allowed to go through the
4-year high school program to qualify them for higher education. They
need a valid and legal reason why their children cannot be accorded the
same promotion considering that their children will have undergone the
same curriculum.
As a matter of fact, the administrators and the schools they have
enrolled in cannot even point out any substantial difference between the
old first and second year curriculum. They cannot accept the reasons
stated by schools that – it is a DepEd requirement, it is the new law
and therefore must be followed. Well, clearly there is some confusion
here and DepEd has not clarified nor addressed this issue that has
already been raised since the forced implementation of the program.
Furthermore, these parents raised the issue that enforcement of the
new law beginning SY 2016-2017 shall result to the impairment of the
existing enrolment contracts they have with their respective schools
which is a violation of Article III, Section 10 of the Constitution.
The revised 2011 Revised Manual of Regulations for Private Schools
Basic Education, specifically Section 120 states — Right to Enroll until
Graduation — The pupil or student who qualifies for enrolment is
qualified to stay for the entire period in which he is expected to
complete his course in a school. It is pointed out that when these
parents enrolled their children to start secondary education in SY
2011-2012 and 2012-2013, the high school program required for these
students to complete in order to qualify for college was merely the four
years secondary academic program as mandated to by the Education Act of
1982. The contract they entered into did not require their children to
attend the new additional two years of senior high school.
RA 10533 took effect only sometime in the last quarter of 2013 after
it was signed by the President last May 15, 2013. It was not in effect
at the time when these concerned parents enrolled their children to
start their secondary education therefore, it cannot be considered part
of the enrolment contract they entered into with the schools. Let’s see
what DepEd will do about this clamor. Will they choose to be silent or
will they properly address it? Abangan!
Basic is the rule that "laws shall have no retroactive effect unless
the contrary is provided” (Article 4 of the New Civil Code).
Although it appears that RA 10533’s effectivity would be prospective,
that is in SY 2016-2017, it is actually retroactive when applied to the
children of these concerned parents.
This K-12 program is supposedly P-Noy’s pride. But what are they
doing about it? The program is doomed to fail due to a lack of
foresight. Don’t get me wrong. I believe that adding two years is valid
but before we add these years we should plan it carefully and with due
diligence on the part of our officials.
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