How to measure impact of K-12

The first batch of high schoolers under “K-12” is to graduate in Mar. 2018. Government had lengthened their basic schooling from the old 10 to 13 years, on the premise that schoolchildren need longer classroom time. They were started younger at age five in kindergarten. Then honed two extra years in grade to high school. Supposedly they would emerge better equipped for work or college.

Are they? It’s time to measure the success of that theory on the first batch of 17- to 18-year-olds.

How to do it? The simplest way, although preparations would be grueling, is by a national scholastic achievement test for all graduating 12th graders. That could be somewhat like the NSAT given to 2nd year high schoolers under the old 10-year education program. The old test checked their readiness for the more rigorous last two years of math, sciences, and social studies. Like, after basic and advanced algebra, they should have been prepared for geometry and trigonometry.

Unless revised, however, the old NSAT would be inapplicable today. Under K-12, an equivalent achievement test is given to 10th graders, today’s equivalent of the old high school sophomores. Partly it is still to gauge their basic knowledge. But a deeper purpose is to validate the students’ expressed preference, whether to take up a technical occupation or enroll in college courses. After all, that is what K-12 is all about. It is supposed to make youths smarter, either in chosen vocations or for higher learning. High school is no longer a preparatory for all for college, in which one ends up as an unskilled gasoline boy unless finishing a college degree. High school under K-12 must equip the graduate for gainful work.

What the Dept. of Education focuses on at present, says Usec. Tonesito Umali, are tech-voc ties with private firms. That applies to the 1.5 million 12th graders (39 percent) who prefer occupations in construction, automotive, computers and gadgetry, health care, or foods. Eleventh and 12th graders are immersed in factory conditions and skills. Students imagine where they can fit in, while employers spot talents for later recruitment. That should help solve the jobs mismatch. Employers often complain that high school graduates out there simply are unemployable, while college graduates do not have the training that factories need.

For the 2.3 million graduating students (60 percent) who plan to go to college, Umali says, a national college entrance exam might be devised. But that won’t come till a year or two. Presently the DepEd is busy retooling teach- ers. Gaps had been created in filling up the two additional years under K-12. Two school years ago the DepEd had brought down to 11th and 12th grade the teachers of college freshmen and sophomores in the old system who didn’t have enrollees, aside from training new ones. Now it has to ensure that those teachers, returning to past college positions, would be imparting even higher math, natural and social sciences, and humanities. They cannot be repeating to college enrollees what they already taught to the high schoolers. For instance, basic calculus and accounting, brought into the K-12’s 12th grade curriculum, cannot just be retaught in college but replaced with higher subjects, for which instructors need preparation.

A track for 350,000 students (one percent) who chose the sports, performing and fine arts, and design also is being fine-tuned, Umali says.

Old college-entrance tests are no longer applicable, especially for students who prefer technical vocations anyway.

K-12 in effect is still a work in progress. The first batch graduating in Mar. notwithstanding, the program needs extensive reviewing. There had been mistakes, as can be expected in any nationwide undertaking. Some schools with advanced curriculums were left to design their own 11th and 12th grades; others with low achievements left it to their best teachers to do the same. National assessments should measure not only graduating students but also teachers and principals; as well, the sufficiency of the curriculums for technical vocations and college life. The end should not be to find out how smart a kid is, but how he is smart – whether suitable for occupation or higher profession.

* * * Union Bank has launched the country’s first paperless branch, at The Ark in Insular Life Bldg., Ayala Avenue, Makati. It caters not only to millennials but basically anyone who dislikes the paperwork in depositing, withdrawing, and paying bills. Walking in with their gadgets, customers simply can key in the preferred transaction and be done with it quickly through “the cloud.” Borrowing would need a bit longer processing, not by usual tellers but “brand ambassadors” knowledgeable in the bank’s many products and specialties. It’s not a prototype but a concept, says chairman Justo Ortiz; they keenly would be listening to customers’ comments for immediate application.

* * * Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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