Conversation on the Proposed K+12 Basic

Education Program

By some stroke of luck, Dr. Abraham I. Felipe (AIF) and I found

some time to shoot the breeze:
ME: If you listened to the video on the public reaction to DepEd Sec. Armin Luistros Enhanced
K+12 basic education program announcement, youd find a couple of holes (actually theres
more) in his argument. Ill start with two at this point because I dont want to overload my
peewee bird brain: No. 1, senior graduates will find it easier to find jobs: Now, thats a bit of
a stretch considering these high school graduates from the proposed K+12 basic education
program will have to compete with an oversupply of college graduates who have difficulty
finding jobs themselves.
AIF: Exactly. I agree wholeheartedly. Why expect employed graduates if there is just
little employment?
ME: So, then, instead of just college graduates competing for jobs, it will be high school
graduates PLUS college graduates who will be competing for those jobs.
AIF: Very true. The unemployed, though, will be better educated. That situation, sir, is more
explosive.
ME: And some gullible ones thought DepEd Sec. Armin Luistros logic was fundamentally
sound, but obviously those ducks are not in a row. Unless those jobs will just miraculously
materialize to absorb the suddenly larger number of high school and college graduates! Or, we
beef up OFW which, according to a press release, is going to downsize or halt the domestic help
exports.
AIF: Our OFWs will have better credentials. Imagine those Filipinos with K+12 + college being
servants? As a foreign master, Id prefer them to high school graduates from Sri Lanka. Aha,
Pnoys program will impact Philippine dignity. Remember a time when Ph.D.s were accepting
jobs as drivers? Their degrees did not make them better drivers, nor their work as drivers a credit
to their graduate schools.

ME: Anyone with a little common sense can use his ten fingers to figure that We can really
beat this to a pulp. If thats the intention in the first place, your solution in the ed cycle article
would be the most intelligent solution: prepare to do some guidance counseling for those high
school students (perhaps, during their sophomore, junior and senior years) who need a vocation
to be employable that would direct them to appropriate TESDA courses and mesh this
arrangement, perhaps, within the purview of their 4-year high school curriculum, or if that period
of time is inadequate, let them sweat it out at TESDA after high school. Then, for those who
have the wherewithal, smarts and ambition to duke it out in college, provide them the appropriate
counseling, as well, so that they are presented with the options for which they are comfortable
with intellectually and financially, as well as where the jobs will potentially be (based on
empirical surveys of government and business current and potential job opportunities) when they
complete college. Of course, whether it be TESDA or a bona fide college/university education,
lets work on improving or overhauling the teaching and assessment methods and the quality of
the teachers. Its that GIGO thing: GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT, and if we dont reverse
that quickly, no amount of Luistros sophomoric homilies will matter.
No. 2, senior graduates will not have to go to college right away because then they will be
more employable: Aha, I know Luistros gonna dumb down and lower the expectations of a lot
of high school students/graduates. In the U.S., where jobs are easier to come by, a lot of those
high school students/graduates wind up flipping burgers, or as retail clerks at WalMart, etc., and
because of the semi-security of earning a weekly paycheck and their normally active hormones,
these young ones are emboldened to have sex. And sometimes, unable to curb their enthusiasm,
they forget the socio-economic benefits of prophylactics and the girls wind up knocked up so
sometimes these folks are forced to start their families prematurely and the thought of a higher
education, like college or even community college or vocational school simply moves further
and further away from their radar as the responsibilities of raising a family get more and more in
the way. I dont suppose Filipino high school graduates will be any more different
AIF: No, except they like to multiply even without the security of a weekly paycheck
ME: With their Catholic faith, the birth rate may even be more significantly affected to
exacerbate the Malthusian nightmare! Especially because those bishops are against sex
education helloooo