AFTER 13 YEARS of implementation, the Kindergarten to Grade 12 program has failed to produce job-ready high school graduates aside from being an additional financial burden to parents, who keep shelling out allowances and other fees for the two additional secondary years their students have to undergo.
President Marcos Jr., in an interview with One PH television, said the K-12 program which started more than a decade ago cost parents more because two additional years were added therefore they had to pay for enrollment, buy a lot of school supplies, purchase books and transport/living allowances. “Yet after 10 years, there’s no real advantage,” he stressed, saying it is up to Congress to scrap the program altogether.
‘The EDCOM report … warned about the dire state of basic literacy in Philippine public schools, with students falling four to five years behind the expected reading proficiency for their grade levels. (It) recommended a “teach-at-the-right-level” approach…’
COLLEGE GRAD PREFERRED
The President echoed the frustrations voiced by lawmakers who are calling for the abolition of the mandatory senior high school system under the K-12 program.
Originally intended to provide high school students with employable skills through four tracks, still the expected employment did not materialize as businesses complained they were not equipped with the proper skills needed by industries.
Employers still prefer college degree holders over K-12 graduates, intoned Maria Ella Calaor-Oplas, an economics professor at De La Salle University in Manila to Business World.
“There is still preference for degrees, even if it’s not necessary and could be done by K-12 graduates. Senior high school graduates are ready if job opportunities for them are available” she continued.
INADEQUATE FUNDING
The Department of Education (DepEd) is rolling out in 889 schools across the country, the pilot of a revised K-12 curriculum this school year that updates the senior high school program.
The K-12 program, which extended the country’s basic education by two years, has been criticized because of inadequate funding, the added financial burden on families, subpar educational outcomes and questions about whether senior high school graduates are job-ready.
The President said his administration will work with the private sector to enhance the K-12 system and address the issue of skill mismatch.
But while the law mandating K-12 is still in place, the President said he told DepEd Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara to significantly improve the program to address the issue of skills mismatch.”
The government is finding out from the private sector the skills they need, the kind of workers they are looking for so they can be hired by the company. But, he said, the private sector went a step further by suggesting that it run the training programs and once completed, they can hire the graduates.
Marcos said the government is also partnering with the private sector to help fix the country’s severe classroom shortage as the government can’t do it alone. He said the private sector is willing to invest and is genuinely eager to help.
REVERSE THE TREND
Marcos vented his frustration at the poor state of public school infrastructure, which he attributed to decades of neglect and underinvestment. He cited the 160,000 classroom shortage as the education sector suffered from utter neglect. “There was no effort to strengthen the system,” he lamented.
Angara cited as well the steady declining performance in key subjects like science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), which reflects the long-term consequences of neglect.
“Our students are falling behind in STEM. Many are struggling even with basic reading skills,” he added.
To help reverse the trend, the President said the government is improving the welfare and capacity of public school teachers, addressing longstanding issues such as delayed salaries and administrative overload.
He added that a major retraining and upskilling initiative is under way to help educators keep pace with modern teaching tools and methods.
“We’ve introduced a retraining and re-education program for our teachers because so much has changed,” Mr. Marcos said. “There’s new technology they need to learn. Supporting teachers — that’s our top priority.”
BASIC LITERACY
The Second Congressional Commission on Education report released in January 2025 warned about the dire state of basic literacy in Philippine public schools, with students falling four to five years behind the expected reading proficiency for their grade levels.
EDCOM 2 recommended a “teach-at-the-right-level” approach, tailoring instruction to students’ actual learning needs rather than their age or grade. It also sought stronger support from DepEd in enforcing remedial and foundational programs.
Amid a persistent learning crisis, the government fell short of its target to add 20,000 teachers for the school year, managing to recruit only 16,000. The government also eyes 10,000 additional administrative assistants to support public schools as they handle accounting, paperwork, documentation and other matters.
EDCOM 2 also asked the DepEd to consider population growth, vulnerabilities, projected deterioration, and available private school capacities in addressing the classroom backlog in order to diversify interventions to address school congestion, break down silos in resourcing and ensure that our efforts directly support the improvement of learning outcomes of our students,” EDCOM 2 Executive Director Karol Mark Yee said in a statement.
The DepEd earlier said it could take 55 years to bridge the country’s 165,000 public school classroom backlog. The DepEd in 2024 received a budget of only P28 billion for basic education facilities, including P7.18 billion for the construction of new kindergarten, elementary and secondary school buildings. Congress also allotted P6.13 billion for the school repairs.
EDCOM 2 Co-Chairman and Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian is pushing public-private partnerships (PPP) to fix the shortage. Angara on Monday said they might pursue PPP to fast-track the construction of about 105,000 classrooms.