Students’ performance in senior high school

HOW are students’ performances from academic year 20162017 when Senior High School (SHS) program was launched? SHS curriculum in various parts of the world is offered to prepare students for work or a university life. The World Education News and Reviews (2016) presented various basic education curriculums in the world.

The Philippines was the last country in Asia having a 10-year basic education and pre-university program (SEAMEO & INNOTECH, 2012). Philippines curriculum is patterned to the US secondary schools.

The K-12 program is a basic education program widely practiced all thought the world is serving children for the 13 years from kindergarten to year 12 (Department of Education and Training, 2010, Philippine Senate, 2011). DepEd of the Philippines believes that the 12year program to be the best period for learning under basic education. It is also the recognized standard for students and professionals globally; this is the main reason why the Philippines were the last country adopting more than 10-year pre-university in Asia.

The K to 12 education program in the Philippines addresses the defects of the country basic education curriculum. As claimed by the proponent of the K12 program, the curriculum is seamless, ensuring the smooth transition between grade levels and continuum of competencies. It is also relevant and responsive, enriched and learner-centered curriculum (SEAMEO INNOTECH, 2012).

There was a total of more than a little more than 1M students in grade 11, (first year in SHS). Around 60.6% were enrolled in the academic track while only 39% were in tech-voc curriculum and less than 0.5% chosen the sports, arts and design curriculum (DepEd).

It is too early to find results on the performance of senior high school students, more so to judge the proponents of the curriculum. Let us just hope that the K-12 program will live to its expectation of being a more potent educational model compared to the old curriculum of basic education in the Philippines. Students are expected to prepare themselves for a more rigorous training in the higher education or go immediately to employment or be an entrepreneur; and this is what we should be assessing after a few more years.

Being new in the Philippines, it is marred with issues such as lacking qualified teachers and the much-needed facilities for use in the highly specialized courses, specifically at the SHS level. There were, however, interventions made and are expected to be in placed very soon.

The K-12 program, especially the SHS is patterned to the old US basic education set-up and to the Singapore system where there are tracks and strands. (

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