Australian gov't to assist DepEd in implementing K+12 curriculum

MANILA, Philippines - The Australian government has pledged to assist the Department of Education (DepEd) as it pushes ahead with the implementation of its ambitious Kindergarten + 12 basic education curriculum (BEC) plan that will add a mandatory kindergarten and an additional two years of senior high school level before college.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the commitment was made to him and other education officials such as Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairperson Dr. Patricia Licuanan and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) deputy director general Teddy Pascual, in a visit to the said country organized by the Australian Agency for International Development (AuSAID) last week.

Luistro said that aside from some financial assistance, Australian education officials will help DepEd curriculum experts drawing up the enhanced elementary and high school, and the proposed two-year senior high school curricula, that will be laid out by 2016.

“Their assistance especially with the curriculum will be a big help since they have a 12-year BEC,” Luistro said.

The K+12 BEC program will result to the current 10-year BEC path with only six years of elementary and four years of high school becoming a 12-year basic path mainly as a result of the two-year senior high school.

DepEd said the K+12 BEC program will be designed to adjust and meet the fast-changing demands of society by providing graduates with essential skills for the world of work, college education or for the global arena.

DepEd, under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, is bent on adding two years in the BEC, seeing it as a vital reform measure that will solve deficiencies in the competencies in the core subjects of English, Math and Science among majority of Filipino high school graduates, as well as to gain recognition of Filipino professionals among employers abroad.

The Philippines is one of the only two countries in the world that has a 10-year BEC, along with fellow third-world country, Myanmar.

A consequence of the 10-year BEC of the country is the unwillingness of companies abroad to recognize Filipino professionals such as engineers and nurses, demanding that these professionals go through additional schooling and then undergoing licensure examinations before being recognized either as engineers, nurses, and accountants.