Makabayan bloc, national artist ask SC to stop K-12 Program   

The Makabayan bloc of party-list lawmakers and national artist Bienvenido Lumbera on Friday filed the latest petition seeking to stop the implementation of the K-12 program under Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, which added two more years in high school.
 

In its 40-page plea, the petitioners, collectively called the "Suspend K to 12 Alliance, said the law should be declared unconstitutional and invalid because it would, among others, result in the loss of thousands of teachings jobs.

Government statistics place the number of teachers and non-teaching staff who will lose their jobs between 25,000 and 78,000.

 

"In some colleges and universities, administrations use the implementation of K to 12 via RA 10533 as a lame excuse to reject the renewal of contracts of probationary employees, reduce the number of part-time faculty members, and relegate full-time employees to fixed-term status that deprives them of probationary status despite their full-time work loads," read the petition.

 

Some schools have even threatened to lay off even permanent instructors, professors, and non- teaching staff as a consequence of implementing RA 10533, the group added.

 

"Petitioners attest that these events really happened (and are still happening), though administrations do not usually issue documents related to such," read the petition.

 

The Makabayan bloc includes congressmen for party-list groups like ACT Teachers, Gabriela, Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Kabataan.

 

The petitioners claimed RA 10533 does not inculcate patriotism and nationalism in the youth, does not promote a self-reliant economy, and is not relevant to the needs of the people and society. Instead, it further promotes and expands the government’s socially costly Labor Export Policy (LEP) by directly aligning the Philippine education system to foreign needs, they added.

 

They said that the elimination of subjects like Philippine History, Filipino, Literature and Philippine Government as a result of the K-12 Program violates the Constitution's provision on providing "core values of Philippine education."

 

The petitioners scored the government for its "obession with the mantra of global competitiveness" and its "socially costly Labor Export Policy," saying: "The course offerings in senior high school under the K to 12 Program is clearly crafted not for the Filipino people’s needs and welfare, but for the needs of big foreign businesses and their local partners."

 

"The best way to start adopting global standards is to adopt the global standard in allotting budget for the education sector, which is pegged at 6% of the GDP. Both richer and poorer countries beat the Philippines with regard to following global standards on the education sector budget," they said.

 

The petitioners said the law also violates Sec. 2, Article XIV of the Constitution because the K-12 program would result in 500,000 prospective senior high school students who can no longer be accomodated by public senior high schools.

 

They said the vouchers ranging from P8,750 to P22,500 per year to be given to the 500,000 graduates are not enough to cover tuition and other fees in many private schools that have been authorized by DepEd to accept students from public schools.

 

The government also failed to adequately and properly consult indigenous cultural communities prior to the legislation and implementation of RA 10533 despite its mention of a "mother tongue-based multilingual education scheme in the primary level."

 

The petitioners also claimed the government does not have enough funds for adding two years of senior high school, as evidenced by its failure to sufficiently fund the old K to 10 program and all its 547 state universities and colleges, adding that the teacher to student ratio is still far from ideal.

 

This brings to five the number of petitions related to RA 10533, with earlier petitions being separately filed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, teachers, and students represented by their parents. - JJ, GMA News