On the eve of the opening of classes in public schools, a youth group on Sunday criticized the Department of Education (DepEd)’s K+12 program to be implemented this school year for its supposed lack of legal basis. Kabataan party-list national president Terry Ridon said the DepEd could not yet introduce the K+12 in the public schools this year because Congress has not passed a law to reform the country’s educational structure. “The enabling legislation for K+12 remains lagging in Congress. It has not yet been passed so we wonder what legal basis does government have to implement it?” Ridon said in a statement Sunday. GMA News Online is still trying to get DepEd’s side on this issue as of posting time. Article III, Section 20 of the Education Act of 1982 provides that “(f)ormal education shall correspond to the following levels:
1. Elementary Education. - the first stage of compulsory, formal education primarily concerned with providing basic education and usually corresponding to six or seven grades, including pre-school programs. 2. Secondary Education. - the state of formal education following the elementary level concerned primarily with continuing basic education and expanding it to include the learning of employable gainful skills, usually corresponding to four years of high school. 3. Tertiary Education. - post secondary schooling is higher education leading to a degree in a specific profession or discipline.”
Ridon claimed added that in the absence of an implementing law, the levels of formal education stated in the Education Act of 1982 (Batas Pambansa 232) should be followed. The youth leader likewise said that the government cannot use “partial implementation” as an excuse to introduce the K+12 this year. “A partial implementation is already a total implementation of the program, as schoolchildren are now being prepped by government that their year of study will now be twelve instead of ten. Moreover, government is already changing its entire curriculum in pursuit of K+12. How can it still not be a total implementation?” he said. Under the K+12
program, Filipino students will have to go through kindergarten, six years of elementary, four years of junior high school (Grade 7-10) and two years of senior high school (Grade 11-12). This school year, students who are supposed to be incoming high school freshmen will be called “Grade 7” students. A new curriculum will also be introduced, but only for students in Grade 1 and Grade 7.
— ELR, GMA News 
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