What is in for you and your kids about the K-12 program?

Simply put, the K-12 program apes the US system of education, with kindergarten, and 12 years of straight elementary and secondary education, the last two years are considered senior high school. In contrast, the present system which will be overhauled consists of six years elementary education and four years of secondary or high school education. We are still gathering more information about the possible impact of this big change, but with the perennial shortage of classrooms, school buildings, and qualified teachers, courtesy of misappropriation, misalignment or diversion of public funds like PDAF(priority development assistance fund) by experienced senators to the favorite NGO bogus organizations of a Janet Napoles,and courtesy also of the DAP(disbursement acceleration program, which ignored congress authorized planned itemized budgeted expenditures.

K-12 has noble goals, but can Filipino families or taxpayers afford this revised educational program? Here is the official government web site on the
K-12 program

Personally I am glad I did not have to pass thru this program, but if I have school age kids I would rather have them home schooled, and idea which may give shudders to educational business corporations. The main fault of K-12, as others have observed, is that children are forced to enter kindergarten instead of giving them freedoms to be kids and to be with other kids! Speaking of homeschooling, here is a view of one successful practitioner:


I think that homeschooling could work in the Philippines. I ended up homeschooling my boys halfway through their 4th and 6th grade years. The school dumbed down their 'gifted child' curriculum just because half of the kids flunked the initial assessment test. My son passed it. I ended up continuing to home school my eldest through high school (my younger one returned to public school when he moved in with his dad.) Homeschooling allowed the kids to learn at their own pace and taking into consideration their learning style. My son played the piano, and he spent hours on practicing in addition to textbook based learning. He could not have done so with the public school schedule. Anyhow, my eldest has done well, received full tuition scholarship in college, and is now a K-5 music teacher. I think we can encourage and equip Filipino parents to home school and make up for the deficiencies in the system...e.g. resources and useless curriculum changes. The same thing is happening in the US.


That is one alternative to K to 12 program.f you are interested in homeschooling, you may email Ms. marie at mfries07@gmail.com.

On the other hand, the US itself is on a path of structural educational change. A new Common Core Standards system is proposed. Here is a guide from US News. Any student in any state should be able to tackle standardised tests. The goal is that Every American student should leave high school with the knowledge and skills to succeed in college and in the job market.

If the Philippines K to 12 program is to succeed, the last two years should provide more technical oriented courses useful for both cooperation and increasing competition in a global village.

Of course, we should help and teach our children, but more than an achieved formal education or diplomas, the greatest goal is help them achieve and enjoy freedom and happiness.