Critique Paper on the Philippine Education System

It would be difficult to discuss the hits and misses of the Philippine education system

without first understanding its structure, which has recently undergone major change and reforms

under the administration of former President Noynoy Aquino. The current education system

being practiced in the Philippines consists of six years of elementary education, four years of

junior high education, and two years of senior high education. The major change here is senior

high education; not a thing exists before. The additional two years is called senior high school

and the importance of which is reasoned as helping future graduates be equipped for

employment, allowing them to have the opportunity to immediately work after high school, and

further study. However, this also makes college or tertiary education increasingly not mandatory,

unlike before when people believed that one cannot have a successful career if one did not attend

college; which is not really a great area of concern but it would be beneficial for the country that

more students pursued courses and specializations. In total, one would attend twelve (12) years

of formal education. This structure follows the education format of other countries, most notably

the United States of America.

The adjustment itself poses problems, both in short-term and long-term. Firstly, it poses

problems for the student who, rather than finishing his/her education earlier, would now have to

spend two additional years in the formal education system. It could be true that the additional

two years has the potential to help them in the long run but the immediate inconvenience of it

trumps the advantage. The disadvantage is most clearly seen in private schools, where most of

the students aim to attend college rather than join the work force immediately. The subjects or

classes or areas offered by these two years of senior high school would make one question the

reasons of its implementation. Out of the four areas presented by senior high school, three of
which are vocational courses, like sewing, carpentry and the like; with only one area that

complements further study. This reveals a hidden intention of the implementation of the K-12

system, where the government wants the countrys citizen to join the work force immediately

after high school; preferably these graduates would work abroad, serving a nation other than

his/her own. It might be true that this will definitely help the economy of the country but this

would also definitely not make the country self-sufficient and progressive. This would just

ensure the countrys status as a developing or third-world nation.

Rather than implementing the K-12 system in a third-world country like the Philippines, a

better move would have been to focus on the teachers molding the minds of the future

generations. There is clearly a great lack of competent teachers in the country. The government

should have placed greater focus on this problem rather than adding two more years and

increasing the problem of lack of teachers. Teachings has been labelled by our society as a lowly

job, as the saying goes, those who cant, teach. This statement is degrading when in reality,

teachers have such an important place in society. It is important to give importance to teachers;

like giving them better pay and benefits to motivate them to teach, increasing their training to

make them more competent and able to mold young minds, encouraging citizen to become

teacher to increase the number, and encouraging great teachers to teach in their home country.

These would have been much better implementations rather than the K-12 system.

Another problem I have with this system is the lack of Filipino subject in the senior high

school curriculum. This encourages the idea that the English language is superior to our own,

which is a dangerous thing to teach. Great and progressive countries like South Korea, Japan and

even the United States of America teaches its citizen to be patriotic and love ones own country.
This great importance placed in ones nation fosters this duty or this responsibility to work for

the greater good of the country.

As for the Communication, which is a great part of Philippine education but of course,

not exactly properly handled in todays government and society, it is seen in the subjects English

and Filipino for formal education. It comes as a great shock when it left the subject Filipino out

of the Senior High School required curriculum, which meant that Filipino was not included in the

subject list for the additional two years of Senor High School. The government did not put

importance in the teaching and learning of the nations own language, the countrys Mother

Tongue. This further places the question of the reason behind the implementation of K-12; it

arouses suspicion among the people, especially the literate. It was also strange how the teaching

and learning of the English language was included in the Senior High School curriculum list,

where the subject of English and English Communication was part of the required subjects when

in Senior High School. This meant the the communication using the foreign language holds

greater importance than ones own. Making it easier for Filipinos to speak and understand in the

foreign language makes them better workers for those countries that uses the same foreign

language; making Filipinos accessible and able to work in a wide array of foreign countries. This

is atrocious how the government places importance in this rather than places the Filipinos love in

their own country because no one can make the Filipinos progressive than the countrys own

citizens

Therefore, rather than implementing the K-12 system in a third-world country like the

Philippines, a better move would have been to focus on the teachers molding the minds of the

future generations. There is clearly a great lack of competent teachers in the country. The

government should have placed greater focus on this problem rather than adding two more years
and increasing the problem of lack of teachers. Teachings has been labelled by our society as a

lowly job, as the saying goes, those who cant, teach. This statement is degrading when in

reality, teachers have such an important place in society. It is important to give importance to

teachers; like giving them better pay and benefits to motivate them to teach, increasing their

training to make them more competent and able to mold young minds, encouraging citizen to

become teacher to increase the number, and encouraging great teachers to teach in their home

country. These would have been much better implementations rather than the K-12 system.
REFERENCES

Clark, N. (2015, June 7) Education in the Philippones. Retrieved from

http://wenr.wes.org/2015/06/education-philippines

Craddock, A. (2016, June 7). Philippines K-12 Reforms Poised to Transform Higher Education

System. Retrieved from http://wenr.wes.org/2016/06/philippines-k-12-reforms-poised-transform-

higher-education-student-mobility