The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Prospero de Vera Wednesday sought the review of the K to 12 curricula.
“We are interested, on the part of the commission, because, of course, the graduates of senior high enter universities. We have to see, for example, whether the idea that there are strands that the students choose from when they enter senior high, whether those strands are available, were they made available, so that when the students proceed to university level, they can follow the strand that they selected in high school,” De Vera said at press conference.
“We also want to see whether the subjects that were downloaded from previously general education programs at the university level, which were put in senior high, whether these were effectively downloaded to senior high. Because there are still demands until now from various sectors that we include subjects on Filipino, for example, Philippine history,” he added.
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He said that the CHED wants to determine if K to 12 has built the desired attributes for learners, particularly those that would prepare them for college which comes after incoming Department of Education Secretary-designate Sara Duterte said President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr sought a review on the basic education program.
Asked whether the implementation of the K-12 program should be halted, De Vera said, “We have to look at data first.”
“When K-12 was instituted, as practiced in other countries, the objective of K-12 is really to prepare students for university education. That is the historical reason for K-12… so that when they get to the university, dapat major subjects na ang kinukuha nila,” De Vera said.
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“Pero ang K-12 natin is unique because it has another purpose. The other purpose is employability. Meaning, the expectation is, after K-12, you can actually join the workforce already and earn a living,” he said.
“As a general principle, I am supportive of ROTC at the university level… And I know, on a personal level, how the training and discipline that I got from being an ROTC officer helped me develop myself when I continued and left university,” he said.
“But it is difficult to comment now because I have not seen the actual content of the bill… It’s a little bit early to comment without a copy of an actual bill that is filed.”
