Education biz group: K-12 needs review

The Philippine Business for Education or PBEd is asking the government to assess first the present K-12 system before venturing into a tweaked form of education, being pushed by former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In an ambush interview during the PBEd Annual Membership Meeting on Monday in Taguig City, attended by business leaders to discuss recommendations to improve the country’s education system, PBEd executive director Justine Raagas said the “K to 10 plus 2” being pushed by Arroyo needs further consideration.

“I think we really need a comprehensive assessment of the current system first. It is easy to say the system failed because of the dismal result of international assessments. But we have to think about the fact that K-12’s first entrants just came from the class of 2012,” Raagas said.

“Meaning, they just graduated last 2022. So, it is unfair to say that the system has failed, where in fact, those who have graduated and entered the workforce were products of an older system,” she added.

She added that the Pampanga lawmaker should identify what she means by her statement that “the system has failed.”

“Does it mean the employability side or the learning poverty that students did not learn to read or write, because these issues can be addressed in the implementation? It is very radical to completely change the system because there are areas that do not work and because we can actually do some implementation and pivots within the system,” Raagas said.