Guv opposes 2 more years in HS

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines  — Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. is against the proposed additional two years in high school, which is expected to start in 2016 under the Enhanced K + 12 Basic Education Program.

He said the government should address first the current need for classrooms and teachers in public schools before adding more years to high school. "It's a wrong allocation of limited resources," he said.

Marañon however favored the inclusion of kindergarten in the school system, and the better solution would be to improve the basic education curriculum and the six years in the elementary.

The K+12 Basic Education Program follows the K-6-4-2 model or kindergarten (one year) plus six years of elementary (Grades 1 to 6), four years of junior high school (Grades 7 to 10), and two years of senior high school (Grades 11 to 12) or total of 13 years.

Negros Occidental schools division superintendent Rizalino Tortosa said the universal kindergarten program will start this June for school year 2011-2012 all over the country.

He said the new curriculum will be offered to incoming Grade 1 and incoming Grade 7 students by school year 2012-2013, and to incoming Grade 11 students by school year 2016-2017.

Tortosa said the K+12 curriculum provides special courses in junior and senior high schools, which will make students competitive when they graduate. "By the time they graduate after six years in high school, they are ready for the world of work just as they would be more ready for college education," he said.

President Benigno Aquino III said the K+12 education curriculum program is part of his administration's education reform agenda. The president has increased the budget for education to P200 billion, which will be spent for, among others, the construction of 13,000 more classrooms and the hiring of 10,000 additional teachers.

Meanwhile, Bacolod City schools division superintendent Ma. Gemma Ledesma earlier said public schools already have kindergarten classes, even before the K+12 curriculum is carried out.

In this city, 45 out of 46 public elementary schools have kindergarten classes, and the teachers' salaries were subsidized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, she said. (FREEMAN)