Manila Science HS teachers, students to file latest plea vs. K-12

Teachers and students from the Manila Science High School are set to file on Tuesday a sixth petition against Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, which paved the way for the controversial "Kindergarten to Grade 12" or K to 12 program.

 

The petitioners said they will ask the tribunal to void for being unconstitutional RA 10533 and Department of Education Order No. 31, Series of 2012, which were the bases for the implementation of what they branded as a “diluted” K-12 program.

 

The petitioners, in a statement on Monday, said the K-12 program “denied the school’s students the education they are entitled to as gifted and talented learners,” because it "diluted" the MSHS’s special science curriculum by discarding a number of math and science subjects.

 

They said Congress also violated the students’ rights to due process, to equal protection, and to select a course of study when they crafted RA 10533, “by unfairly and unreasonably requiring them to attend two additional years of senior high school as a pre-condition to entry to college."

 

They said Education Secretary Armin Luistro and the other respondents committed grave abuse of discretion when they implemented the K-12 program without prior consultation with parents and teachers.

 

They said the assailed curriculum under the K-12 program, implemented at the MSHS in 2012, should not have been put in force yet that year because the law on the matter was still being deliberated by Congress that time.

 

The petitioners added that RA 10533 should be applied prospectively and should only cover students who started kindergarten in 2013.

 

The petitioners said they will ask the high tribunal to stop the implementation of the current curriculum under the K-12 program, and restore the special science curriculum by coming up with “remedial measures” to ensure the math and science subjects discarded under K-12 will be taught to the students.

 

Likewise, they would also insist before the SC that the Grade 10 students affected by the K-12 program should still be allowed to apply and take college entrance exams.

 

Among the petitioners were officers of the MSHS Faculy and Employees Club. The petition will also be filed on behalf of all other students, parents, and teachers of the school who share their cause.

Other petitions
 

Five other petitions have been filed in connection with RA 10533.

Four of them that oppose the K to 12 program included:

 

 

 

The fifth petition—filed by a group of university professors, party-list lawmakers, and student activists—particularly targeted Commission on Higher Education Memorandum Order No. 20, Series of 2013 that abolishes mandatory subjects in college such as Filipino language, Literature, and Philippine Government and Constitution. —KG, GMA News