New DepEd chief vows to implement K-12
Incoming Department of Education (DepEd) secretary Leonor Briones has vowed to implement the K-12 program this school year despite some foreseeable problems.
“As to suspending it, more problems might arise, but there might be changes on what will happen on June 13. Let’s see what will happen in the next two weeks,” she said in a news conference yesterday in Quezon City.
“Institutional and curricular changes are already being implemented in response to the requirements of the two laws mandating K-12,” she said.
The new administration would come in on July 1, and by then Grade 11 of K-12 would be in place.
“What can be done by the incoming administration at the moment is to monitor closely the implementation of Grade 11 starting June 13,” she said.
The feedback will be relayed to the present DepEd leadership.
Briones said she understands the opposition of some families who consider the program an additional burden with the extra years of high school.
Since the law was passed in 2013, the government has gradually implemented it and made the necessary preparations.
“It was hardly noticed by the public because the focus was largely on curriculum building. This doesn’t just mean adding two additional years in high school, but change in the entire curricula from Kinder to Grades 10 to 12,” she said.
Briones pointed out that schools have been preparing for the challenges of K- 12 such as additional funding for senior high school and the displacement of teachers and students from poor families and remote rural areas.
“Education is always underfunded. The Constitution says that education should have the largest budget allocation. Getting the largest budget is not enough, we have to more or less harmonize our allocation with international standards,” she said.
International standards, Briones noted, require that at least six percent of gross domestic product should be allocated to education. The present allocation is at three percent.
With the allocation of P364 billion in the 2016 budget, Briones said there is a need to subject it to an increase of P45 billion, thus a total budget allocation of P409 billion.
“I already had initial talks with incoming Budget secretary Benjamin Diokno. The budget might even be more than that, especially since we are taking into consideration the need to also intensify the alternative learning systems because we cannot just ignore those who will be left out of the K-12 program,” she stressed.
She said that while not all pupils would be absorbed in the K-12, provision has to be made for alternative learning systems to ensure that “no one will be left behind.”
Briones, currently lead convenor of Social Watch Philippines, said she would have to leave the civil society group once she starts work as DEPED secretary.
‘Chaos’ feared
Kabataan party- list Rep. Terry Ridon warned the people of “chaos” when classes at the basic level open on Monday due to lack of classrooms.
“Every school opening, DEPED likes to paint a rosy picture of readiness. Yet we always see that when classes resume, the same old problems manifest in full,” he said.
Data from DEPED show that about 1.5 million students will take up Grade 11, the first of the two-level Senior High School under the K-12 program.
Ridon said the 1.5 million Grade 11 enrollees also implied that up to a million students chosen not to continue to senior high.
The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines ( CEAP) yesterday said that schools are ready to fully implement the Senior High School (SHS) plan of the K-12 program for the coming school year.
With most students returning to class on June 13, CEAP advocacy and information management officer Anthony Coloma said that all their 2,400 member schools “have prepared and are ready for the full and actual implementation of the SHS program for SY 2016-2017.”
“Our classrooms are ready. A number of our schools have invested in infrastructure and teacher training,” Coloma added.
He added that during this year’s summer months, CEAP along with the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations and Private Education Assistance CommitteeFund for Assistance to Private Education have arranged training programs for almost 7,000 Grade 11 teachers nationwide.
“We are ready and we are excited for the implementation of this education reform,” the CEAP official added.
He also expressed his gratitude to the Commission on Higher Education for extending financial support to the faculty and staff who have been affected by the reform in the education sector.
Child discipline
DEPED had introduced a guide for teachers on positive discipline for school children.
DEPED, along with education non-government organization E-Net Philippines and international child welfare organization Save the Children, launched the “Primer on Positive Discipline for Everyday Teaching” yesterday, in time for the opening of classes on June 13.
The primer that was posted in the department’s website
www.deped.gov.ph was created to help teachers apply a positive approach in classroom management and will be distributed to teachers nationwide.
The primer will also be used as a training tool for positive discipline.
“This primer will be most valuable to our teachers so that they can cope with the day to day challenges of having to deal with young, active learners using positive reinforcement,” said Education Secretary Armin Luistro.