Senior high school

The K to 12 program acknowledges that most, if not all Filipinos, want a college diploma. At the same time, most Filipinos (except priests and nuns vowed to poverty) want to make money, either as entrepreneurs or as employees. The program, therefore, promises to give every Grade 12 graduate a realistic chance to go to college or to earn a living immediately after graduation.

The program for Senior High School (SHS, or Grades 11 and 12) consists of two distinct parts: first, a core curriculum that prepares students for college, and second, a set of subjects (called “career pathways”) that prepare students for careers. All students are forced to take the core curriculum, as well as to choose at least one of the career pathways.

The core consists mostly of the same subjects that make up the rest of the K to 12 curriculum, namely, English, Filipino, Math, and Science. The content of Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) continues in a new subject called “Contemporary Issues.” New in basic education are subjects taken from the General Education Curriculum (GEC) of college, namely, Literatures of the Philippines, Literatures of the World, and Philosophy of the Human Person.

The career pathways are of various kinds. There are those that come with a National Certification Level 2 (NC2) from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). (Grades 7 to 10 will enable students to obtain an NC1.) Examples of these are: Animal Production, Caregiving, Computing and Internet Fundamentals, Crop Production, Dressmaking, Electrical Installation and Maintenance, Food Processing, Home Management, Tailoring, Technical Drawing, and Welding. A school will most likely offer only one or two of these.

There are those that do not come with an NC but have equivalent certifications or recognition from other government and non-government bodies. Examples of these are: arts, foreign language, journalism, local language, music, security, sports, and theater. Career pathways related to arts may be assessed by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Those related to sports may be assessed by the Philippine Sports Commission. Those related to foreign languages may be assessed by TESDA or by such foreign language institutes as the Alliance Francaise, the Goethe Institut, and Instituto Cervantes.

There are those that focus on entrepreneurship. Examples of these are bookkeeping, industrial design, marketing, and taxation. Willing to set up an accrediting system for entrepreneurship is Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), in cooperation with various business organizations.

The curriculum for SHS has not been finalized by Technical Working Groups for the various learning areas, but the general framework has been approved by the Steering Committee (the interagency body in charge of the K to 12 program).

In general, students in Grade 11 will spend about two-thirds of their time studying the core subjects. One-third of their time will be spent on their chosen career pathways, either on campus or – more likely – on an internship or immersion in a company. Students in Grade 12 will spend more than a third of their time in an internship or immersion.

In the original K to 12 program, the first Grade 11 sections were expected to be offered only in 2016, when those entering Junior High School this coming June will have finished Grade 10. Because some public and private schools, however, are ready to offer Grade 11 on a voluntary basis to their graduates this coming June, there are models already being accredited by the Department of Education (DepEd). These models will serve two purposes: they will enable recent high school graduates to enjoy the benefit of a dual-based SHS (dual because it is both college-ready and work-ready), and they will serve as laboratories to validate the curriculum.

Among schools that have indicated their willingness to serve as models of SHS are: Angeles City Trade School, Assumption Antipolo, Ateneo de Naga University, Bacolod National High School, Balagtas Agriculture National High School, Bataan School of Fisheries, Bukidnon National High School, Bukig Agricultural School, Centro Montessori International, Claret School of Quezon City, Colegio San Agustin Makati, Dingle Farm School, Doña Monserrat Lopez Memorial School, Iligan City School of Fisheries, Immaculate Conception Academy, Kananga-EDC Institute of Technology, Manila Central University, MGC New Life Christian Academy, Miriam College High School, OPOL National School of Arts and Trades, Our Lady of Fatima University, Philippine Women’s University, Pinagtangulan National High School, Rizal Experimental Station and Pilot School of Cottage Industries, San Pedro Relocation Center National High School, St. Jude Catholic School, St. Paul College Pasig, St. Pedro Poveda, Subangdaku Tech-Voc High School, Tagum City National Trade School, University of Makati, Xavier School, and schools belonging to the National Network of Normal Schools (3NS).

My own school, The Manila Times College, has formed a consortium with Asia Pacific College, Don Bosco Technical Institute, and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines to offer Grade 11 in June. We have designed a curriculum that will allow students to take core courses during Grade 11 and the first semester of Grade 12 and to go full-time into a BPO (most likely a call center) during their last semester. Very likely, these students will be hired by the BPOs where they will do their internship, thus fulfilling the main promise of the K to 12 program, namely, to allow students to earn a living immediately after high school graduation.