Special report K to 12: The longer journey begins

(FIRST OF TWO PARTS)

CEBU, Philippines - Ready or not, today marks the official integration of the K-12 curriculum in private and public schools, a move of the Aquino administration to make the Philippines at par with the 12-year global standard for basic education.

Private schools are mandated to follow although no sanctions will be imposed on schools that would fail to do so immediately.

“We belong to the Department of Education and we receive orders. The private sector is also mandated, and they are really willing,” said Department of Education (DepEd) 7 Director Carmelita Dulangon.

Last April 24, President Benigno Aquino III led the formal launching at Malacañang of the K-12 reformed basic education program which makes the kindergarten education mandatory for every five-year-olds and adds two more years of senior high school for all students.

Aquino had noted that the country is the only one in Asia with a 10-year basic education program and one of only three countries in the world, alongside Dijibouti and Angola of Africa.

But even as the government insists on implementing the new curriculum amid opposition from various sectors, officials are also issuing conflicting signals on whether the schools are ready for it.

The Central Visayas education chief, in an interview with The FREEMAN, stressed: “We are ready. We are prepared. We will implement K to 12.” But on the same breath, she admits that in reality, they could not provide all the schools in the region with the needed infrastructure such as the basic or standard classrooms.

For this, she said, schools must use every available facility to be used as classrooms including libraries, stages, or even the principal’s offices. But she assured that their office is “mobilizing all the resources” to address whatever they lack now.

“DepEd is trying its best to provide our needs but considering this is all over the country, we also have to do what we can at our level. The barangay officials, the city officials and the provincial officials are putting their hands together to meet with whatever problems they meet along the way.”

The DepEd Central Office has also allocated 1,206 teachers for Central Visayas for this school year but this apparently could not meet the region’s needs. Last school year alone, Cebu Province had a shortage of 1,994 teachers for kindergarten, about 1,000 teachers for elementary and around 1,750 teachers for high schools on top of the shortage of classrooms and school furniture.

With K-12, Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Young expects the problem to exacerbate for Cebu City. 

“Granting that the DepEd will have enough money to build the classrooms asa man ‘nya ibutang diri’s Cebu City nga gahuot naman ta asa man nila ibutang ang classrooms,” said Young. (Where would they build the classrooms when the city is already congested?)

Last June 1 or one year after the government made kindergarten mandatory, DepEd issued invitations to bid for the construction of 52 single-storey kindergarten school buildings with toilets for Central Visayas.

 Of the 52 kindergarten school buildings, five will be for Cebu City, three each for Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu Cities while two each for the cities of Talisay, Toledo and Danao. Cebu Province, which has 44 towns, was allotted nine buildings.

The total budget for the kindergarten school building project for the whole Central Visayas is over P44 million, with Cebu cornering almost half of the total allocation, at P21,840,390.

Cebu Province has also been helping DepEd in constructing schoolbuildings throughout the province. For this school year alone, the Capitol alloted P30 million as counterpart to the pledge of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. to give P30 million to build classrooms. On top of that, the Capitol’s Provincial School Board approved last May 17 a budget of P201.705 million for school year 2012-2013 to include the construction of 200 classroom and distribution of school supplies and computers and lesson plans for teachers.  The budget encompasses the secondary, elementary and the pre-school levels.

But with a shortage of around 2,000 classrooms for the whole province, it’s apparently a long way to go for the public schools to have the ideal setup. Dulangon revealed that when DepEd Undersecretary Rizalino Rivera visited Cebu, he discussed with the mayors the allocation of school buildings and the local chiefs were interested in providing the buildings for the schools as long as DepEd will provide teachers. 

Last June 1, DepEd 7 also issued an invitation to bid for P6.787 million worth of school furniture to be distributed in the schools of Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor. The amount will cover the cost of buying 3,734 armed chairs for elementary, 4,436 armed chairs for high schools, 164 teachers’ tables and chairs and 100 sets of tables and chairs for elementary schools in Negros Oriental.

Cebu Provincial Board Member Wilfredo Caminero, chairman of the committee on education, requested 3,260 armchairs for the high schools in Cebu which was also approved by the board. This will add to the 2,529 armed chairs that DepEd alloted for Cebu Province.

Dulangon said the school boards of various local government units, whose Special Education Fund are spent on building and repair of classrooms and salaries of teachers, have surely helped.

“They lighten up our burden,” she said in an interview during the training of teachers for K-12 during the summer vacation.

For Young, DepEd must address the shortage of classrooms and teachers first before implementing the K-12 program. But for Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, it no longer matters whether one is for or against the program. It is a project of the National Government and the intentions are good so everyone might as well support it and try to make it work.

“We’ll give all our best to support it,” Rama said. —/JPM (FREEMAN)