DepEd decries alleged plan to repeal K to 12 program

FILE: Department of Education (DepEd) Br Armin A. Luistro FSC led the graduation rites of the first batch of Senior High School students in Leyte under the K to 12 program. A total of 100 graduates – 27 Automotive students, 22 Metals and Engineering students, 26 Tourism students and 25 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) students – marched from Merida Vocational School and Palo National High School. (Photo: Department of Education – Philippines/Facebook)

MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) has no plan to repeal the K to 12 Basic Education Program implementation.

“The department maintains its stand that the K to 12 Program is a prompt necessity that pushing it back might prove detrimental to the accelerating and increasing demands on education. The challenges still abound but the support of the national and local government, and of stakeholders in the private sector and the community, has been overwhelming that it silences doubts and strengthens the resolve to move forward with change today,” DepEd said in a statement released Monday.

The department was reacting to sentiments and questions on social media pertaining to the “supposed plan to scrap the K to 12 program,” which the DepEd described as “based on misinformation and lack of discernment.”

Such claim rooted from the news on the plan of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to “review and change the system for its K to 12 Transition Program”, which was mistaken as the implementation of the entire K to 12 Program.

“These two are not one and the same. The implementation of the K to 12 Program has seen numerous gains for the basic education system, which include the initial results of the Senior High School (SHS) Program surpassing expectations in enrollment and transition rates and in providing free or highly subsidized SHS education to more than 2.7 million learners in public and private schools two years after the SHS Program implementation,” the DepEd said.

It noted that the K to 12 implementation is mandated by the law under Republic Act 10533 or the “Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, hence, it cannot “arbitrarily discontinue the program”.

“As with any law, the implementation, amendment, expansion, or repeal of the K to 12 Program is within the ambit of the legislative branch of the government comprised of the Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives,” the statement read.

DepEd said people should consult its official website and social media accounts “before spreading assertions and engaging discussions on its policies, programs, and projects that may influence the opinion, decision, or action of our primary stakeholders ─ our learners.”

On May 9, Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago filed a resolution urging the Duterte administration to review and stop the K to 12 program after CHED chairperson Prospero de Vera III admitted defects, such as the stalled implementation of projects and non-provision of salary for project-based researchers.

“We have said time and again that the K to 12 program will not answer the country’s declining quality of education,” she said in a statement after filing House of Representatives Resolution 2557.

Elago added that improving the quality of education would “truly address the needs of the Filipino youth and Philippine society in general.”