The Regional Consultation on the K+12 Educational Reform is on-going. This morning, Dr. Isagani Cruz talked about the current ideas on how to implement K+12 in the near future. K+12 is actually kindergarten + 6 years of elementary + 4 years of high school + 2 years of career academy. Dr. Cruz however calls the last 2 years of basic ed as senior high school and not career academy. Career academy is the one being pushed by Fr. Joel E. Tabora, SJ.
The K+12 will actually start next School Year (i.e., SY 2011-2012). This however is met by hesitations and concerns. Participants from Elementary schools expressed concern about training their teachers to teach an appropriate preparatory curriculum (i.e., the K in K+12 proposal).
The kindergarten program (the K in K+12) is essentially the familiar prep and not the current "kindergarten" program and not the nursery program. In the K+12 proposal, kindergarten is necessary and not optional as before.
My concern is more on the assurance that graduates of Career Academies will actually get jobs. This will entail close partnership with employers and the industry players. I hope that DOLE and Employers Confederation of the Philippines actively participate in the implementation of K+12.
Nowadays, some employers would insist on a college degree requirement even if that is clearly an over-qualification. I hope that graduates of a Career Academy will be attractive to employers and will be well paid.
Fr. Joel E. Tabora, SJ provides an excellent coverage of the K+12 Educational Reform (see : http://taborasj.wordpress.com/).
