Schools offer bridge program to prepare for K-12

With two years left before the K to 12 program is in full swing, schools have been stepping up preparations to ensure their students will be ready for the new basic education scheme. Aside from making changes to their curricula, some private schools have been offering bridge programs to equip students with the necessary skills to cope with the major changes in the education system.

 

In Holy Family School in Quezon City, the bridge program is a five-week long program designed “to bridge the gap between the competencies for the implemented curriculum and the target curriculum.” Classes were held over the summer break for both current and new students.

 

According to the school’s website, students were classified for the different categories of the bridge program “based on their levels of proficiency and levels of motivation and interest in Math, English, and Filipino for Kinder and grade 1, and these three subjects including Science for grades 2 to 8.” A pre-assessment and summative tests were administered beforehand to the students to determine which category they should be enrolled in.

 

For Assumption Antipolo, more subjects were incorporated in the four-week bridge program it implemented over the summer. Aside from Math, English, Science and Filipino, the school included Social Science, Computer, PE and Music for the program designed for grades 1-5 students. Those in Grade 6 to 7, meanwhile, had the math component replaced with algebra and statistics.

Adjustment, acceleration

 

The bridge program is just one of the adjustment mechanisms that private schools can implement as part of their transition to the new K-12 curriculum, according to the Department of Education (DepEd).

 

The agency said the bridge program resulted from discussions that began in 2011 between DepEd and several private schools, most of which are based in Metro Manila, that offered Grade 1 for seven-year-old students and/or had seven years of elementary education.

 

Under the K-12 curriculum, children who are already six years of age must already be in Grade 1.

 

According to DepEd, the private schools it had a dialogue with requested the agency to allow them to make adjustments to their programs for specific cohorts or batches of students. 

 

“Otherwise, these cohorts of students would graduate [from] high school at age 19 or 20—and after more than 12 to 14 years of basic education—which would have been well beyond the intent or requirements of K-12,” DepEd said in an e-mail to GMA News Online.

 

Private schools were given the leeway to determine the length and content of their respective bridge programs as long as they have informed the DepEd of their plans.

 

In principle, however, DepEd said the length of the bridging program should be inversely proportional to the overlap between the agency’s K-12 curriculum and the one currently implemented by the private school. 

 

Based on the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, schools may apply and submit their proposals for transitioning to the K-12 curriculum until September 2014.

 

As with Holy Family School, students of Assumption Antipolo who successfully completed the bridge program will be eligible for acceleration. This means they can skip one year level for the incoming school year provided they garnered the necessary scores. Those who failed the exams given after the program will proceed to the next year level come the start of classes.

 

While the DepEd does not prescribe a single assessment mechanism that schools should use in gauging if a student who underwent a bridge program is eligible for acceleration, it said students are expected to learn competencies for the grade level they will be accelerated to in accordance with the K-12 curriculum.

 

Previously implemented

 

The bridge program is nothing new. It was previously implemented in 2004 for students who failed the National Achievement Test. But just after a short period of time, the program was scrapped due to complaints about its cost and necessity by student leaders, teachers, school administrators and parents.

 

Now, certain private schools are implementing it out of a desire to be in step with the changing curriculum.

 

DepEd said it has left the decision to implement a bridge program to private schools.

 

“DepEd did not implement the K-12 transition or adjustments for private schools per se. It [merely] allowed private schools that wanted to adjust to do so as long as these schools meet the requirements [set] by the Department. Again, the K-12 transition or adjustments were initiated by the private schools,” the agency clarified.

 

Despite the benefits that students in private schools stand to gain from participating in the bridge program, the DepEd said there is no need for it to be implemented in public schools.

 

“Public schools begin grade 1 at age 6 and then follow the phased implementation of the new K-12 program. The latter is the only ‘adjustment’ they had to do,” it said. —KG, GMA News