Ideas for 2016

Why has the government (or anyone else) not given a grand solution to the nightmare of 2016?

Simply because there is none.

Let me qualify that. There is no grand solution that is only one solution. There is no “one size fits all” solution. There is no magic pill.

But there are solutions. There is no solution, but there are solutions.

What the administrators in a school, after consulting their teachers, have to do is to decide on a solution that is unique to their school and cannot be used by other schools (or may be used only by similar schools).

Let me give a simple example.

The University of Makati, in 2012, stopped accepting first-year students into their college programs and made every applicant a Grade 11 student. That meant that, in Academic Year (AY) 2012-2013, all their new students were in Grade 11; in AY 2013-14, these were in Grade 12.

This June, they accepted first-year students in college from the batch that went to their Senior High School (SHS), while accepting fresh applicants into Grade 11. In AY 2016-2017, it will be business as usual, with incoming first-year college students and incoming Grade 11 students. Problem solved!

That was easy to do with the University of Makati, which is relatively autonomous. It would have been the thing to do with the other local universities and colleges (collectively called LUCs), but they did not follow the lead of UMak. They should have.

UMak is now using the new General Education Curriculum (GEC), because all their first-year college students have already had 12 years of pre-university education, the prerequisite indicated in CMO 20, s. 2013, for implementing the new curriculum.

Sometimes, the simplest solution is the hardest to see.

Here is another solution that is applicable to a lot of good private schools.

In 2011, the Department of Education (DepEd) told good private basic education schools that they could “calibrate” (that was the term used) their grade levels. That meant that, if a school saw that their Grade 10 (at that time, Fourth Year High School) students could meet the College Readiness Standards (CRS), it could rename (that is the meaning of “calibrate”) their grade levels. Of course, if the learning competencies had not been fulfilled completely, then the schools had to have bridging programs (or catch-up work) during summers.

Some schools, then, renamed their Fourth Year High School Grade 12, their Third Year High School Grade 11, and so on. Since the new curriculum needs 12 years and the old curriculum has only 10, some batches were told that, instead of entering, say, Grade 4 as they thought they would, they would already enter Grade 5 or even Grade 6.

These schools graduated Grade 12 students last March or April. They will be graduating Grade 12 students in March or April 2016. Good private colleges that accept only students coming from good private high schools will, therefore, still have first-year college students in AY 2016-2017.

That was another solution that, unfortunately, cannot be used today by schools that did not join the calibration program in 2011.

I hate to say it, but it is really the fault of administrators that they now find themselves in a situation where they will not have first-year college students in 2016. Too many administrators went into a denial mode and are only waking up to the problem now.

But it is not too late. There is hope. There are still solutions that can be applied at this late stage. I am sure that teachers will have creative and doable solutions, if only they would be asked by administrators.

Here, for example, are suggestions that teachers have given me about what to do in 2016.

1. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have academic freedom. That includes the freedom of choosing who to teach. An HEI can accept anyone. This is done routinely abroad.

Some months back, I listed in this column schools that accepted extraordinary kids. UCLA accepted Kathleen Holtz at age 10. Loyola University Chicago accepted Sho Yano at age 8. Santa Rosa Junior College accepted Michael Kearney at age 10. East Los Angeles College accepted Moshe Kai Cavalin at age 8. Stony Brook University accepted Alia Sabur at age 10. University of California, Santa Cruz, accepted Adragon De Mello at age 7. Randolph-Macon College accepted Gregory Smith at age 10. University of Connecticut accepted Colin Carlson at age 9. (See teachthought.com)

Of course, these were geniuses, but you don’t have to be a genius to pass the CRS.

HEIs can accelerate Grade 10 students and exempt them from taking SHS, as long as they pass entrance examinations. HEIs have the academic freedom to do that. (This, in fact, is an argument of the anti-K to 12 people: Many Fourth Year High School students today pass the UPCAT.)

One way to handle the nightmare of 2016, therefore, is to strengthen your recruitment team and invite the above average students now in Grade 9 (and who will finish Grade 10 in 2016) to take your entrance examinations. Then accept them (if they pass the exams) in 2016, ensuring no gap in your enrolment. (Next week: more solutions)