K to 12 Higher education schools willing to open doors

CEBU, Philippines - With the forthcoming shift to the K to 12 program starting in the academic year 2016-2017, some private and public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have expressed willingness to offer their existing facilities and teaching staff to the basic education schools especially those that are not capable of integrating the senior high program during the transition years.

 According to several university administrators The FREEMAN has spoken to, opening their campuses to other schools would be among the alternative measures they are eyeing to generate income amid the projected plummet in enrolment during the five years of transition.

 This projected decrease starting in 2016 would mean drastic loss of revenues for private and public universities and colleges when students enter Grades 11 and 12 instead of proceeding to the college level.

 The Department of Education  forecasted around one million students entering senior high school two years from now.

 Education Secretary Armin Luistro earlier said that the initiative of colleges and universities to offer programs and facilities for senior high school would save the government money.

 DepEd, for its part, shall partner with colleges, universities and technical-vocational institutions especially during the transition period in order to manage the initial implementation of the K to 12 system and mitigate the projected low enrolment turnout for the latter.

 While existing public schools may implement senior high school, the government plans to build new stand-alone senior high schools.

 Private schools, on the other hand, said that they welcome partnerships with those institutions that cannot put up a senior high facility due to lack of resources. They added that public and private schools have to take the initiative to work together or else they would lag behind by 2016.

 University of San Jose - Recoletos Vice President for Academics Reverend Father Emmanuel Bolilia, OAR, said a number of private schools in Cebu have already approached USJ-R for possible linkages.

 He said they have also trained some of the faculty members from other private schools.

 These schools, he said, are those that cannot put up enough laboratories and have to train their faculty especially for technical-vocational courses, which are considered the most expensive in terms of investment for the school, thus tapping bigger schools such as USJ-R for the students’ continuity.

 “They just have to send their students to USJ-R to enroll on those subjects that they could not cater,” he said.

 As of now, USJ-R is still conducting an inventory of its resources to identify sufficiency to the projected number of Grade 11 and 12 students.

 To date, the university has 1,500 students from Grades 7 to 10. Of this number, 350 shall proceed to Grade 11 next year.

 Bolilia said it is also possible that students in public schools may go to private schools once they reach senior high.

 University of San Carlos basic education department director Fr. Felino Javines Jr., SVD, DM said private HEIs like USC can actually shoulder a segment of the senior high program with the state-of-the-art laboratories and up-to-date facilities they have. USC has five campuses in Cebu.

 There are 6,000 students enrolled in the basic education program in three USC campuses in Cebu.

 Javines said they expect 700 or more Grade 10 graduates every year. The university’s basic education department began to offer Grade 11 and 12 since 2011.

 In fact, USC already has 111 Grade 11 students taking up associate in mechanical engineering, 83 of them belong to the second batch that started this academic year.

 Nevertheless, private educational institutions may only offer senior high school when authorized by DepEd.

 This is clearly stated in Rule IV, Section 15 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.

 The education department shall regulate the offering of senior high school in private educational institutions and prescribe the guidelines on the issuance and revocation of permits and/or recognition of senior high schools.

 During recent discussions organized by the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), member schools feel the need to offer the senior high school program driven with a “deep sense of social and moral responsibility” even with the lack of legal mandate.

 They also believe that since the K to 12 law fixes the secondary education to six years, all existing private schools with basic education must eventually be capable of offering senior high education.

Stand-alone schools

Javines raised the unexpressed concern of stand-alone schools that they would most likely lose students if they do not offer the senior high program.

“Once a stand-alone school partners with a capable school, it would necessarily mean they would send their Grade 10 graduates to the latter but the real question is, are they willing to do that?” he said.

 Javines said educational institutions that offer both basic and tertiary education would not have much difficulty in putting up a senior high facility and would only need to make little adjustments.

 He lamented that those stand-alone schools that only offer either of the two educational stages might be financially challenged since they have to allocate additional budget to be able to cater to Grades 11 and 12 students.

 He said it may even be necessary for those stand-alone schools to put up buildings or laboratories, procure more equipment and hire more teachers.

 “There will be enough facilities for colleges and universities since they are built for that but for stand-alone schools, it would be a little bit tough realistically speaking,” he said.

 Javines, who has been invited to conduct seminars on the K to 12 preparation among stand-alone schools, said that no school will admit that they will not offer senior high program.

 “But how can that be possible in terms of the availability of their budget? The best option left for them is to partner with schools that either has both basic and tertiary education or has college level only,” he said.

 But Talisay City Councilor Richard Francis Aznar says otherwise, contending that stand-alone schools especially those government-run college institutions could also cater to the needs of some schools that cannot put up senior high facilities.

 Aznar sits in the Board of Trustees of the Talisay City College and chairs the committee on education of the Talisay City Council.

 Even if it is a stand-alone school, TCC is subsidized by the government, which makes it easier for the institution to allot a budget for preparations for the K to 12 transition, Aznar said. 

 He added that the government-run institution could actually cater to the Grade 10 graduates of the 19 public national high schools in Talisay City who shall proceed to Grade 11 by 2016.

 TCC registered a population of 3,000 college students in all year levels this SY 2014-2015. The school reported an increase of 800 enrollees this year.

 Aznar said that around 80 to 90 percent of the enrollees in TCC are residents of Talisay and are graduates of the national high schools there.

 He said that the city government approved a budget of roughly P14 million for TCC this year. A TCC student pays an annual tuition fee of less than P3,000.

 He said the budget that goes to the school is based on the requirements TCC needs for the year. Although it may or may not increase by 2016 in time for the K to 12 transition, Aznar is confident that it would not decrease but remain stable in the next years.

 He remains optimistic that TCC can extend its facilities, programs and faculty members to the schools that are having difficulty in putting up the senior high program.

 He said they still could not estimate the number of Grade 11 and 12 graduates that they could cater for now.

 To date, TCC has sufficient resources and facilities but Aznar admits they still have a lot of work to do. He added that they intend to enhance their academic programs in order to meet the requirements of the senior high curriculum.

 TCC has been embroiled in a tug-of-war over its president – between Ritchel Bacaltos, who is supported by the TCC Board of Trustees and Dr. Paulus Mariae Cañete, who was appointed by Mayor Johnny De los Reyes.

 Doctor Joseph Sol Galleon, who was temporarily appointed by the board stepped down from the post recently due to health reasons.

 For now, TCC Chairman De los Reyes will assume the presidency temporarily until the board chooses a new president.

 Aznar said the board shall hasten the procedure of appointing a president since it partly affects the preparedness of the school for the K to 12 system.

 As of now, they have laid out the initial plan with Bacaltos but they need to finalize the timeline once the new president steps in.

 “We will be waiting for the next president to join the TCC board to continue the earlier discussions for K to 12. The sooner, the better,” he said.

 He admits that TCC is not yet completely ready for the transition but are already working on it.

Financial matters

On the monetary aspect of preparation, University of San Carlos Vice President for Academic Affairs Fr. Anthony Salas, SVD. MM said colleges and universities will suffer in cutting their budget while supporting their remaining employees during the transition years despite having no freshmen and sophomore enrollees in SY 2016-2017 and SY 2017-2018.

 For SY 2014-2015, USC has 19,000 college enrollees of which around 4 000 are freshmen.

 “For sure it will decrease in the coming years. We will not expect the same number as we have now starting in 2016,” he said.  He also raised the concern that some of the Grade 12 graduates may opt not to pursue college anymore by 2018 since they are already prepared for employment.

 “Actually di na ta guro makabawi,” he admitted.

 Aside from amending the organizational structure of the tertiary education with the anticipated faculty movement, Bolilia also said that the educational institutions will also need to invest on additional facilities such as classrooms, laboratories and other amenities since the senior high program is considered to be highly technical and skills-based education.

 He cited that they have received report from their division school head that they are looking at 94,000 Grade 10 graduates to be accommodated by 2016.

 “However, the government plans to put up only one senior high facility both in the north and south of Cebu that could only accommodate 8,000 or even less. Now, the Commission on Higher Education  is really banking on private schools to host these 94,000,” he said.

 He pointed out that in this case, the burden on the private schools would be about how much they can only accommodate from the potential Grade 11 students.  He said this would require schools to put up another structural building to house around 300 to 400 enrollees for the senior high.

 Bolilia cited that around 3,000 to 3,300 college freshmen would be admitted to USJ-R in every academic year and they are looking forward to cater to the same number for the senior high program two years from now.

 “As of now, we are still evaluating our available resources such as our classrooms since DepEd requires students taking up general education courses to stay in the school from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. unlike the students from Grades 9 to 10 who only need to stay from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,” he said.

 He added that with the anticipated 3,300 students to enroll in Grade 11 by 2016, it would require USJ-R to have 66 permanent classrooms and 66 class advisers in order to accommodate the said class schedules.

 “If that is true to them, that would be very true to us,” he added.

 He said that the prevailing construction cost for a classroom would range from P15,000 to P20,000 per square meter.

 Putting up a classroom would include its fixtures and amenities such as LCD screens, sound systems, white boards, and air-conditioning units.

 Bolilia said they will also have to spend on improving its technical-related laboratories once they will open their campuses to other schools soon.

 Last June 2013, USJ-R inaugurated a new four-storey building in its Basak campus named after St. Pius X. This is an annex of the Our Lady of Consolation Building intended for its basic education. Bolilia said that this is also in preparation to the implementation of the K to 12 program.

 USJ-R has three campuses in Cebu. Both the main campus located in Corner P. Lopez and Magallanes Streets and the Basak Campus in the southern part of Cebu house 137 rooms in its eight buildings.

 Its Balamban campus, on the other hand, has two school buildings with 54 classrooms, laboratories and other facilities.

 Aznar echoed the same sentiments as Bolilia, saying that it would require the school additional resources to prepare themselves if there will be more schools that will choose to use the facilities of TCC for senior high.

 “If  limited ang resources, we will do what we have. Ang unsa ra ang makaya gud,” he said.

 He also said that the Talisay City is willing to invest on the infrastructure of its schools since the education of its constituents is one of the top priorities of the local government.

Coping up

 Aznar said that to make up for the possible losses, schools can encourage those who have graduated high school before the K to 12 program was implemented to pursue college by 2016.

 “Daghan pa wa maka-college from that market, I believe. Para naa gihapon enrollees but they would be considered as scholars. Nakatabang pa ta sa atong teachers, nakapaeskwela pa ta. We can do that,” he said.

 Meanwhile, Salas said that unless the government will provide subsidies to private schools, the latter would manage to cope.

“Then education becomes even more expensive,” he said.

 He cited that 90 percent of the revenues earned by USC come from the tuition fee of its students. However, he said that they foresee a decrease of 40 percent in terms of its enrolment in SY 2016-2017 and SY 2017-2018.

 “The more students you have, the bigger leeway for your operations within the school. But as the revenue goes down, the finances have to be cut as well,” he said.  The university plans to produce more researches to cope with its losses.

 While the infrastructure may mean additional expense for the university, Bolilia said that they could not declare higher tuition rates since it is basic education. He added that the school fees for both basic and tertiary education would indeed vary.

 “If we are operating based on freshmen, we cannot operate. Certainly, we have to tighten our belts,” he said./JMO (FREEMAN)