Quiet adjustments taking shape in private schools for K-12 compliance

When the government rolled out its K-to-12 program a few years back, it was hoping to answer the problem of an educational system said to be lagging behind global standard.

 

The Philippines only had a 10-year basic education ladder, the least number of years compared even to its neighbors in Southeast Asia with 11 to 12 years. Even so, with so many families facing poverty, many are still unable to finish school, which leads to a disadvantage once they start looking for jobs.

 

The program, the government said, would “provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills [and] develop lifelong learners.” It was also geared toward a basic education that enables students to be considered competent to join the workforce even with just their high school diploma.

 

The policy, however, seems to have been met by more questions regarding its implementation. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV—who opposed the program even before it was signed into law in 2013—once again called for its suspension earlier this week, saying the government should first address “fundamental problems” in the system, such as lack of facilities and high student-teacher ratio. 

 

He also said the government was not prepared to face the looming retrenchment of some 85,000 college professors and employees once the program commences in 2016. 

 

Concerns over the effect of the program to educators have also reached the private preschool system. A source told GMA News Online that a fear among independent preschools was losing “a significant chunk” of their students to bigger private schools that also offer grade school, particularly if the school is in demand and slots there are considered. This could mean a bad break on the business for preschool owners, as well as the teachers under their wing.

 

Parents still go for ‘good, caring’ preschools

 

The fear, however, has not been entirely realized yet, GMA News Online has found, and schoolowners said parents are still predisposed to send their children to preschools that have a good reputation.

 

According to Liberty Balajadia, who heads the Jalajala Christian Academy in Jalajala, Rizal, “the performance of the school is also one of the factors that affect the increase [or] decrease” of students that go to them.

 

“I believe that parents are looking for a good, caring, and performing school,” she said in an online correspondence with GMA News Online.

 

Stella Cadiz, who runs the Montessori of Loyola in Quezon City, said parents consider preschools, like the Montessori system, because “there's a developmentally appropriate way of teaching students at that age,” which these schools specialize at.

 

“'Yung approach of Montessori, appropriate siya for younger children [because] they're able to handle tactile materials, and there's [a] personalized curriculum,” Cadiz said in an interview. “Unlike in a traditional school you all learn the same thing … [Here, they get to handle] concrete materials, which is possible if the classes are smaller.”

 

Edna Ocampo, directress of the Young Achievers International School (YAIS) in Parañaque City, explained the said trend could be attributed not exactly to K-12, but out of parents' fear of sending their children to schools not recognized by the Department of Education (DepEd).

 

“'Yung sinasabing may mga parents na i-e-enroll na lang 'yung anak nila sa regular school, ang fear nila doon, walang lisensiya 'yung mga preschools, lalo na 'yung mga gara-garahe lang,” she said in a phone interview. “Puwede kasing kahit matagal 'yung stay ng anak mo sa preschool tapos kung wala namang lisensiya 'yung eskwelahan, parang hindi mabibigyan ng merito.”

 

At YAIS – which offers complete basic education – Ocampo said they compressed their preschool offering from three years to only two, so the child can advance to Grade 1 by the time he or she turns six. What used to be nursery, kindergarten, and prep has become Jr. and Sr. Kindergarten, the curriculum of which combine those of nursery and kinder and kinder and prep, respectively.

 

Unaffected yet

 

Balajadia said K-12 even had “a positive effect” on their enrollment figures “because preschool had been institutionalized.”

 

“Hindi pa naman [kami affected ng decrease in enrollment figures] so far,” Balajadia said. While unrelated to the aforementioned fear for independent preschools, she told GMA News Online that they are “planning to offer grade school in the coming years.”

 

Cadiz likewise said the feared effect of the program has not reached them yet, particularly since their neighboring “big school,” Ateneo de Manila, is “taking it slow” and has yet to introduce a kindergarten program.

 

It means her school still retains the demographic of the students they accept, ranging from 3- to 6-year-olds, who eventually attend prep at the likes of Ateneo.

 

According to Fr. Anthony Pabayo, S.J., vice president for Basic Education at the Ateneo, plans to offer a Kindergarten program “are underway.”

 

“We wanted to use the shift from our previous system to the K-to-12 system as an opportunity to evaluate what used to be our Prep program and formulate a new Kindergarten program,” Pabayo said in an email to GMA News Online.

 

They are working on making their program “more responsive to the needs of our potential students,” he added.

 

‘Not so much for purposes of compliance’

 

Aside from this, Pabayo disclosed that there are “plans to expand” their Senior High School “beyond the all-boys cohort coming from the Ateneo High School.”

 

“The intention for expanding … is in line with the desire to extend Ateneo education to students from other Jesuit schools as well as financially challenged deserving students from the public schools and parochial schools,” he said.

 

While “discussions” for that are still ongoing, Pabayo also said the adjustments they already made in their basic education offering for school year 2013-2014 “primarily took the form of enhancing the curriculum in all the different subject areas.”

 

“In effect, no subjects were added or taken out of the curriculum,” he said. Instead, delivery of lessons was “re-organized and improved,” and different grade levels “were re-labeled.”

 

He said this was done so the “transition curriculum” could bridge the previous offerings and “students will not be skipping any lessons as a consequence of the re-labeling of the grade levels.”

 

According to Jose Antonio Salvador, headmaster of the Ateneo Grade School, the university has divided its basic education system into “three separate but interconnected school units” – Grade School, Junior High School, and Senior High School.

 

It “was not so much for purposes of compliance, but more with the intent of managing all of the change goals” that they have within their system, he said in an email response.

 

Curriculum changes for 2016

 

Other private schools that offer complete basic education program likewise said that the changes, if they made any, were made on their curricula.

 

Educator and child specialist Feny de los Angeles-Bautista, executive director of Community of Learners Foundation in Quezon City, said they did not have to adjust much since their curriculum “has always exceeded minimum learning competencies of the national public school system.”

 

Her school offers an early childhood program (1.5 to 5 years old), Grades 1 to 7, and first to fourth year high school.

 

“I've studied what has been made available of the K-12 curriculum, for a private school like us, the adjustments are not major and we have been making the transition since the previous school years,” she said in an email.

 

For YAIS, Ocampo said following K-12 meant changes in “standard of assessment” and construction of tests, as well as moving to a letter grading system, which have equivalent numerical grades for purposes of determining honor students.

 

Funding concerns

 

She said they have also applied for license to put up their senior high school arm. It can be considered a business move, she added, since it will enable them to keep the students they have nurtured until Grade 10, while also opening their doors for students who came from schools that will not offer Grades 11 and 12.

 

A main factor considered by DepEd in giving a private school license to put up a senior high school is if it is “time-tested, hindi lang running on an annual permit,” she said.

 

“Business-wise, kasi sayang naman 'yung Grade 10 mo,” she told GMA News Online. “Na-train mo na 'yan from Grade 7 to Grade 10, so if you will just throw them away, ang makikinabang doon 'yung eskwelahan na dalawang taon na lang siya mag-stay for high school."

 

Ocampo said, however, that this entails the need for additional or realigned funds and facilities on the part of the schools, which should consider this step if “may savings 'yung school na puwede mong magamit, or you have rooms you can convert.”

 

“The school per se is not really a matter of earning so much because you'd have to return the tuition [by way of] academic and non-academic development,” she said. “Hindi siya katulad ng ibang business that you can use all the earnings. Dito, you have to upgrade your instructional materials.”

 

‘Positive and ideal’ but...

 

Private school educators interviewed by GMA News Online believe that the government's K-12 program is good in principle, but said that a close eye must be kept on its implementation.

 

For Bautista, also former executive director of the Philippine Children's Television (the producer of “Batibot”), the Education department should focus on K-3 and Grades 6 and 7 because “those are the critical growth spurt years for brain development and psychosocial transitions for children.”

 

Grade 7 “should have been made part of elementary,” she added.

 

Ocampo countered claims that the program was implemented too soon. The problem, she said, may lie in the public school system, since it is funded by the government.

 

“The law itself is good, hindi naman siya out-of-the-blue. Kaya nga lang 'yung proper implementation kasi niyan will require funding – for both private and public. Sa private, it's a matter of realigning the saving. Sa public kasi, that will require funding from the national government. 'Yun ang malaking question mark.”

 

“Ang mahirap, sila 'yung nag-initiate ng date ng compliance,” she added.

 

Balajadia, who also teaches at a public high school in Pasig City, said it is “a good thing to try to be at par with other countries,” but she hopes “we won't be a victim of being 'ningas kugon'.”

 

Ateneo's Pabayon, for his part, told GMA News Online that the objectives of the K-12 reform “are positive and ideal,” but will need cooperation among education leaders, policy makers, and schools.

 

“I think it would be vital for the government and the (DepEd) to carefully monitor the implementation of the early stages … and perhaps organize more (opportunities) in which best practices may be shared,” he said. “Opportunities to share best practices will help a lot in the effective implementation of the reform in the local or school levels.” —KG, GMA News