Senior High School Is Not Going Anywhere, And An Education Advocate Explains Why It's Here To Stay

You might have read the news about senior high school being discontinued in some schools—particularly in state universities and colleges (SUCs), as well as local universities and colleges (LUCs).

Whether you have kids who entered school when the K-12 curriculum was introduced in 2013, or you are like me, a millennial parent who hopes that the education system reverts back to the 6 years elementary and 4 years high school education when our kids finally enter school, then this news is significant to all of us.

There has been misleading information about the discontinuance of K-12 that made some parents worry whether their Grade 10 or Grade 11 kids will be displaced next school year. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) clarifies that they didn't abolish the senior high school program in the country; rather, they merely reminded SUCs and LUCs to discontinue the program in the institutions within their scope because the K-12 transition period has ended and they no longer have a legal basis to continue accepting SHS students in the next school year.

The implementation of K-12 will continue under the Department of Education, as it has been enacted under Republic Act No. 10533, also known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.

Basic problem of PH educ not K-12, but nutrition, says educ advocate

Education advocate Ramon del Rosario, Jr., who is the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) founding chairman and PHINMA Corporation chief executive officer, explains why K-12 is here to stay.

In an interview with One News PH last November 2023, Del Rosario maintains that the K-12 curriculum is the way to go if the Philippines want to raise globally competitive learners, "There is consensus among education experts that you need 12 years to reach the college level, both in terms of the content that you have to absorb, but [sic] in terms of the level of your maturity."

He added, there have been very significant efforts through PBEd to improve the employability of the graduates of the senior high school program, especially in identifying the competencies that the students need to get more of, enhancing the content in schools, and strengthening the curriculum.

Del Rosario stresses, the problem with the Philippine education system is not entirely related to K-12, but traces back to a mother and child's nutrition.

"The basic problem with Filipino education starts with the basics. The kids don't learn how to read and write, and that's not the problem of adding two years."

He added, "It's really from the very beginning, and it starts even before they go to school. Nutrition. Malnutrition. This issue of stunting is not a small thing. Up to 30 percent of our kids have brains that do not develop properly because the kids do not have the right kind of nutrition in their infancy."

Del Rosario emphasized the importance of addressing the mother and child's health and well-being, especially during the first 1,000 days.

He admits, there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the implementation of K-12. However, reverting back to 10 years rather than 12 years, he says, is "a major step backward."

"The idea of increasing the basic education period to 12 years, part of it was to decongest the learning experience because there were too many things being thrown into the kids that they were having difficulty learning the basic things well."

The idea was to focus on the basics, he said. "But when the two extra years were added, there is a penchant to keep throwing additional things that people think kids should learn."

He believes that the solution to improve K-12 implementation in the country is to have the Second Congressional Commission on Education, or what he refers to as the Education Commission, to look at this whole system in a holistic manner and come up with an integrated solution to all the problems of our education system.

He also recommends better communication and coordination between the three education bodies: DepEd, CHED, and TESDA.

SHS teacher shares benefits of program to students

On the side of the teachers, a licensed professional teacher (LPT), who taught Senior High School students in a private school for three years, shared what she thinks are the benefits of the additional two years of education to her students.

She was among the last batch of Basic Education Curriculum graduates, and entering college as a 16-year-old brought her a lot of pressure, stress, and culture shock.

"As a Gen Z teacher, I wouldn't want my students to go through the same. For me, the main benefits of the SHS program include helping them to have more time to decide on what course they want to pursue in college, and the leeway for them to adjust to the new, advanced learning environment with the readiness to cope with academic stress and pressures."

In a survey by Smart Parenting, most of the parents say they are in favor of abolishing the Senior High School program, saying that it is just a waste of money.

However, SHS is not going anywhere, and as Del Rosario pointed out, there's still a lot of work to be done by everyone to improve the quality of education in the Philippines, and all of us have a role to play.