From the Old Notebook: K - 12 Education

Like what the title says, this essay was written two years ago during the hoopla that was the K-12 education. Apparently, the issue became a bigger hoopla because the curriculum will now be implemented this school year.


Who is tired of studying for fourteen or more straight years? I am. I am because I feel that my brain is so ready to explode right after I throw myself out of college. As for my parents, I can feel their tired sigh as I will finally stop draining their wallets.

You have to admit it, education is one wallet killer.

Formal schooling is a very long and rigid process of educating oneself, and I can actually measure that it is indeed very long, since I grew up studying and living in one place, my dear dear city. I saw the neighbors’ children grow up, I saw changes in the houses, and I saw my neighborhood grow in terms of population, as the said neighbors kept on sharing the night with their spouses. Bottomline? I am growing up, everybody’s growing up, and I am still studying. Some of my contemporaries stopped schooling altogether, and CHOSE to be an out-of-school youth. Their reason? Aside from the obvious, which is that they don't have money, the other reason is the length. Is ten years of Basic Ed that long? They didn’t even try to finish secondary school. I was thinking that maybe they were including college in the count which strengthened the discouragement and disinterest among them and their parents. Elementary and high school is already too long, we can’t bear college anymore, they say, they think that the time spent in school should be spent for working and not for studying. This inclusion of college in the count reflects the mentality that if a person didn’t finish college, then that person will never be able to get a professional job, pushing that person to pursue blue-collared jobs or to be part of the informal sector of the workforce. This is exactly what happened to my contemporaries, they stopped schooling, and are now working. This situation, for me, is not a bad thing, as a person does not need a degree to be a worker, he or she only needs skills appropriate to the job, or he or she can establish a business where he or she will have the income needed. There’s no need to be a summa cum laude to be a gazillionaire.

This is f***in sad.

And here is DepEd trying to push for a twelve year basic education program which they think will further the skills and knowledge of the youth, as they believe that Filipinos are already lagging behind other countries in terms of “global competitiveness”. Parents both from private and public schools were enraged by this proposal, as they will have to shell out bigger amounts of money, and in case of the public school folks, they will have to survive another two years of trying to make ends meet. We can’t blame the parents, they think that basic education is already expensive, and they still have college to think of. But hey, let the children find a way to get through college if the family does not have enough or has no money for college education. Don’t babysit a sixteen year old too much.

Christ Jesus. I wouldn't even consider having a child if he looks like him.

Well, I agree to DepEd to the extent that we are lagging behind everybody in terms of economic competitiveness and the respect received from other nationalities. But since the thrust of our government is to make workers and not entrepreneurs out of my countrymen, then I am totally for the two year extension of the basic education, provided that the curriculum will give the students enough skills to land a job or to make jobs (establish a business) even if they only have a high school diploma. An example of which is basic bookkeeping or hands-on training in the different professions, then if they find something interesting while studying, they can decide to further their studies through attending college, or applying what they have learned right after high school. The point here is that students will be ensured that they will have success even just after high school, and that the decision to pursue college education will be on their hands and not on their parents’ mouths.

This, I think, will be a very difficult undertaking, as what I am thinking will wreck the nerves of my country's attitude towards high school graduates and the college diploma. They value education, I know and am proud of that, but we put too much prestige to the college diploma, to the extent that it is already ridiculous, as we scoff at high school graduates, who are, by the way, also educated, and we can’t seem to deviate from the finish-college-and-get-a-job attitude. This attitude will be the major hindrance to the basic education’s extension’s fruition apart from the budget, political, and social will needed for the changes.
Having a job is not the sole source of income, there are millions of other pursuits that can make us get that dream car, dream house, and dream life. I am telling you this: economically speaking, the completion of both basic and tertiary education is not the sole ticket to success.

I am not saying that we must all dropout from high school or college. We are all unique individuals, and if our formula for success is finishing just high school or both high school and college, then I don’t have any issue, as our triumphs will depend on our choices. What was given here is a vision for the educational system, and probably even for our society.