K-12 HAS NOT BEEN ABOLISHED

LLOYD STEVEN M. ANINZO

The K to 12 program, which is under the Department of Education (DepEd), has not been abolished and will continue pursuant to Republic Act 10533.

It was the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) which issued a memorandum ordering state universities and colleges (SUCs) and local universities and colleges (LUCs) to discontinue offering the program.

This is because the K to 12 transition has already ended, which is part of the legal basis for SUCs and LUCs to accept SHS students.

With fake news and insinuations circulating that the CHED abolished K-12, the Commission has issued a statement saying it has no authority to abolish senior high.

The memorandum on the discontinuance of SHS program in SUCs and LUCs was released on Dec. 18, 2023. According to CHED, it was not abrupt or arbitrary because the Academic Year 2023 to 2024 is still ongoing and no displacement of students occurred.

In fact, the discontinuance of SHS offerings in SUCs and LUCs - including those in Central Luzon — has been ongoing for three years now, the CHED said.

According to the Commission, there is no more legal basis for SUCs and LUCs to have senior high, except for those having laboratory schools for their education [degree] students. They need additional facilities because of the increased enrollment in SUCs.

When the K-12 law was passed in 2016, lack of qualified teachers and rooms were the main problems in basic education. Back then, public universities had extra classrooms and teachers since there were no incoming freshman students.

The mandate of SUCs and LUCs is to provide post-secondary education under Republic Act 8292 (Higher Education Modernization Act), passed to establish a complete, adequate and integrated system of higher education.?

The CHED and the DepEd had an agreement that public universities can offer senior high school program during the transition period and the students are subsidized through the voucher program.

Since the transition period is over, public universities and colleges now need to use their classrooms and teachers. CHED has urged board members of affected SUCs and LUCs to discuss issues concerning the transition of SHS students currently enrolled in their institutions. It also assured SHS teachers in concerned SUCs and LUCS would not be displaced or transferred to other institutions as they would continue to teach higher education subjects.

-oOoThe author is a Teacher I at Sitio Mindanao Integrated School