VICE PRESIDENT and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio said her team was given until next year to decide on the fate of the Kinder to Grade 12 (K-12) program, which has been criticized for failing to achieve its goals while adding financial burden to families.
“We were given by President [Ferdinand R.] Marcos one year, this School Year 2022-2023, to give a final answer about our K-12 program,” she told an economic briefing on Tuesday held after Mr. Marcos’ first address to Congress.
Ms. Duterte said the Department of Education under her predecessor already “initiated the review of K-12 and they are about to finish and wrap up and make their report on the review of Kinder to Grade 10.”
“My administration will start the review on Grades 11 to 12,” she said.
Mr. Marcos said in his State of the Nation Address that a careful review of the education curriculum’s viability is being done. “All necessary inputs and points of view are being considered.”
The 10-year-old education curriculum extended the basic education cycle to include two additional years in the secondary level with the goal of giving learners opportunities to acquire the necessary skills demanded by the labor market.
At the same briefing, Ms. Duterte said she and Labor chief Bienvenido E. Laguesma are in talks to “strengthen and intensify our coordination particularly in the Philippine Skills Framework between the Department of Labor and DepEd.”
Mr. Laguesma was present during the briefing. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
