DepEd’s K+12 gets a boost from VM Belen
DAGUPAN City Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez has endorsed the K+12 program of the Department of Education which expands the required schooling period for children to include kindergarten for one-year plus 12 years of basic education.
Fernandez, who was guest of honor and speaker during the K+12 Advocacy Program of the Dagupan City Schools Division Thursday, said high school graduates abroad with 12-year education could get employment even without a college degree.
The One of the goals of the two additional years of basic education, Fernandez said, is to better prepare graduates for employment, even without attending college.
The K+12 program includes one year of kindergarten, six years of elementary education, four years of junior high school and two years of senior high school.
“Our current curriculum completes into 10 years a curriculum that is learned by the rest of the world in 12 years. The need to cram everything, all bits of useful information and the need to put all these in the lesson plan may leave our students with minimal retained learning,” she stressed.
Fernandez said she is happy to see that the government has taken the initial step of including beginning this coming school year in June the kindergarten year, which “offers a different level of education and teaches pupils human relations at an early age”.
DAY CARE CENTERS
Fernandez has been supporting day care centers in the city because she believes that a child’s early exposure to human relations is valuable in later life.
“Early on, they are taught to be good, to share, to be kind, to clean up, etc. This stage in their education also allows them to learn the ABCs. You would have to agree that Grade I is a little too late to start to learn reading, counting and adding,” she said.
While the K portion of the program will begin implementation, the ‘12’ portion will be applied gradually.
Next year, incoming high school students will first go through four years of junior high school, get a diploma and then go through two years of senior high school.
The vice mayor said technically there would be no need for drastic changes until five years from now, a period that is deemed enough to allow DepEd and the entire machinery of the national government to prepare by providing funds, training and infrastructure.
“Five years is a lot of time for the business sector to dig in to ensure the success of a program that will eventually benefit them,” she said.
Meanwhile, teachers led by Dr. Alma Ruby Torio, Dagupan City schools division superintendent, lauded Fernandez for her all-out support to education.—LM
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