‘No Mindanaoan should be left behind in K to 12 program’ – Luistro

Education Secretary Armin Luistro admitted that part of the challenge of the K to 12 Program was to ensure that “no Mindanaoan would be left behind” as the Department of Education (DepEd) gears up for the nationwide implementation of the Senior High School (SHS) – the highlight of the country’s biggest education reform – in 2016.

Luistro, in a recent gathering of over 4,000 education stakeholders from Mindanao supporting the education reform, said the DepEd was exerting its best efforts to ensure that the K to 12 Program will be implemented smoothly in the region and will benefit the learners in Mindanao. “If Mindanao progresses, the Philippines will progress,” he noted.

K to 12, Luistro stressed, was not just a national educational reform program. “This reform was anchored in hopes, dreams and challenges that you in Mindanao faced,” he said.

“It is the time for the educators and stakeholders here to rewrite the story of Mindanao,” he added.

For Tagum City Mayor Allan Rellon, the success of the K to 12 Program would not only lead to the success of the DepEd but all Filipinos as well.

“We, education stakeholders, made it a point that education was not a spending but an investment… K to 12 is an investment for the future,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moreno saw “a brighter future for the Mindanaoans” with the full implementation of the K to 12 Program.

Several students from Mindanao also shared how the K to 12 Program and their decision to undergo the early implementation of Senior High School changed the course of their lives.

Kling National High School in Sarangani Grade 11 student Marian Clarell Bularon shared how her training under the K to 12 helped her earn for a living. “Nagagamit ko ang mga kasanayang nakamit sa isang tribal school,” she noted.

For Marion Sonorio, an SHS graduate of a technical−vocational course from Iligan City National School of Fisheries, the K to 12 served as a stepping stone to get a better job.

“I had a hard time figuring out what would happen to me after fourth year high school [because] I came from a poor family,” he said. However, after taking up commercial cooking under the SHS, he immediately found a job as cook in a local restaurant and months after, he was promoted as assistant supervisor. For parent Elaine Salar, a mother from Surigao City, “K to 12 is a big help to the families, especially the least fortunate families.”