Optional school uniform move ‘not enough’ – party-list

A party-list group has described as “not enough” a move of the Department of Education (DepEd) to make the wearing of uniform nonmandatory during the resumption of face-to-face classes this August.

In a statement, the Kabataan party-list said there’s “nothing” with this plan of Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Dutere, although this may be appreciated by students and their families.

The group noted that since 2010, the wearing of uniform has not been strictly required in attending faceto-face classes in public schools as provided under DepEd Order No. 65.

“Even after years of making the wearing of uniform non-mandatory, such policy has not ensured accessible education for all, because this matter is only a tip of the iceberg. Other barriers make education inaccessible to the youth,” it said.

Kabataan cited tuition fees, which increased by an average of 4.74 percent, while other school fees rose by 10.61 percent last academic year.

“Sara Duterte’s move to implement the DepEd order making uniforms non-mandatory is not only unoriginal but also populist – meant to appease public frustrations but not to help solve systemic problems,” the group said.

Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel said that DepEd should stop the adjustments in tuition fees and other expenses to ease the burden of the students and their families.

Manuel said the government should provide financial aid to students to keep them in school.

Earlier, the group filed House Bill 252 or the Emergency Student Aid and Relief Bill, which seeks to provide P10,000 cash assistance to students affected by the pandemic and calamities.

K-12

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) yesterday expressed support for a call to overhaul the K-12 basic education program.

Reacting to a survey showing growing dissatisfaction with the program, ACT chairman Vladimer Quetua said K-12 failed to fulfill the expectations of Filipino families when it was first implemented in 2012.

“Filipino families aspire for progress and they want to be alleviated from the dire poverty that they are suffering from. They want and need decent paying jobs with security of tenure that will give them economic security,” said Quetua.

“Education programs like the K-12 will not give them this. They will never be satisfied with such. That is why despite their impoverished situation, they strive to send their children to college,” he added.

A survey of Pulse Asia conducted from June 24 to 27 commissioned by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian showed that 44 percent of 1,200 respondents were dissatisfied with the program.

The figure is up from the 28 percent obtained in a similar survey in September 2019.

Those satisfied, meanwhile, dropped from 50 percent to 39 percent.

The same survey also found that the additional financial burden was the most cited reason for the dissatisfaction with K-12.

The K-12 program overhauled the country’s education system through curriculum revisions and the implementation of universal kindergarten and the two-year senior high school program.

Quetua said the country’s education sector should not only focus on producing workers.

“The whole education system needs to be overhauled. Education should serve the aspiration of Filipinos for national development. We need a system of education that will develop our agriculture and serve the establishment of national industries,” said Quetua.

“An education that will produce Filipinos with a deep sense of patriotism, imbued with democratic values, scientifically-minded and competently skilled and dedicated to serve the upliftment of our people,” he added.

He also opposed a proposal of the Asian Development Bank to extend learning time to help students catch up with the learning losses, saying it will only result in burn-out of both teachers and learners.

“This kind of proposal has a rigid and narrow view of learning and is obsessed with curricular, co-curricular, K-12 competency-based standards as well as in counting contact time, and conducting remediation and enrichment classes as intervention mechanisms,” said Quetua.

“Such an approach will take a great toll on learners’ and teachers’ mental health, and consequently on the quality of learning,” he added.

Gatchalian filed a resolution seeking a Senate inquiry on the status of the implementation of Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.

Duterte also ordered a review of the K-12 program.