Manuel A. Roxas Elementary School - MARES

Manila - Palace Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda has announced that the cost of the 2 years added to the 10-year education cycle will be revealed by Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Armin Luistro on October 5. The current 10-year education cycle in the Philippines is broken into 6 years of primary (elementary) and 4 years of secondary (high school) education. In an earlier statement, President Benigno Aquino III promised he

"will expand the basic education cycle in this country from a short 10-year cycle to a globally-comparable 12 years."

DepEd Secretary Luistro fully supports the President's plan. Luistro stated that

"our current curriculum is too academic"

and has reiterated that the plan is not limited to adding 2 years but also involves improving the quality of the curriculum. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile backed this plan and stated that

"it is necessary in order to improve the quality of our educational system so that we can become competitive in the world market.”

As of writing, Senators Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo and Francis Escudero have also expressed support for this proposal. The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), on the other hand, expressed their disapproval to this education program. ACT Secretary General France Castro stated that

"The content of Philippine education only means to produce graduates that will merely fill the needs of big multi-national companies for skilled but subservient workers."

ACT also pointed out that the 12-year cycle will just add financial burden to parents and add more workload to teachers. Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz made a similar statement and said that for parents, 2 more years of school means 2 more years of buying school supplies and giving their children allowances. He also added that

"It’s not timely for DepEd because it does not have the money to have all these payments for teachers."

According to Luistro, the presentation of the proposal is set to coincide with the celebration of World Teachers' Day in order to gather feedback from all education stakeholders.

Source: Digital Journal, Ron de Vera