SC asked to halt K-12 program

MANILA, Philippines - Various groups asked the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday to stop the implementation of the K-12 program, which would add two years in the country’s secondary education.

In a 26-page petition, the Coalition for K to 12 Suspension asked the high court to issue a temporary restraining order enjoining the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) from further implementing the program that would lead to a lag of two years in the entry of students to colleges and universities.

Petitioners led by the Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines also asked the SC to annul Republic Act 10533 and its implementing rules and regulations for being unconstitutional.

They alleged that RA 10533, or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, violates the rights of education workers to full protection of labor, promotion of full employment and equality of employment opportunities, which are all mandated under Article XIII Section 3 of the Constitution.

“The Constitution promotes work creation or protection and not work displacement or loss. In the implementation of this law, education workers face the risk of early separation, forced retirement, constructive dismissal, diminution of salaries and benefits, labor contractualization and a general threat to self-organization,” read the petition.

Aside from the law, they also questioned before the SC the joint guidelines dated May 30, 2014; DepEd Memo No. 2 dated January 2015, and House Bill No. 5493 filed on Feb. 23.

Petitioners alleged that the orders had no basis under the K-12 Law when they provided for compensation (upon transfer to senior high school) and retrenchment of workers.

They further argued that the issuances are contrary to law and jurisprudence as education workers are forced to suffer such forms of unjust labor practices, which “only prove that the K-12 Law is incomplete.”

They added that House Bill 5493, which would provide financial relief to workers displaced upon the implementation of K-12, is also inadequate as it fails to include the fundamental labor rights of affected workers.

Named respondents are DepEd, DOLE, CHED, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), secretary general of the House of Representatives and Miriam College.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro, however, is confident that the high tribunal will not stop the implementation of the K-12 program.

“I don’t even see that as a possibility. I don’t think really that there’s anything new that they’re going to raise (before the high court),” Luistro told reporters yesterday.

“Why this late in the game? If it were really about the curriculum, about the teachers (who will be affected), we have been very transparent and have been announcing that since 2010,” he added.

The secretary on Wednesday faced members of the House of Representatives to present his midterm report on the K-12 program.

During the presentation, he reportedly told lawmakers that some 39,000 teachers and 14,000 non-teaching personnel may lose jobs in a span of five years in the “worst-case scenario” of the program’s implementation. –  With Janvic Mateo, Paolo Romero