The K+12 Conundrum: a Game-Changer?

Mike Doria [2015 June 25] Manila, Philippines

Usually, Fourth Year high school students are excited about graduating and look forward to finally moving on to the next stage of their education. The incoming 4th year high school students of 2015 however, would likely not be as giddy because their graduation would be pushed back two years, from 2016 to 2018 due to the implementation of the highly controversial K+12 program. But while all of them have to contend with a delay in their being able to experience the college lifestyle that many teens crave for, they also have reason to worry. The fact that they would not anymore need to graduate from college in order to be eligible for employment means that the pressure of securing employment would come at a point in their lives sooner than those before them. Since Filipinos are used to the idea that colleges and universities prepare them for employment, the thought of going straight into the corporate office right after high school is a thought that a few may find uncomfortable; others, terrifying.

But it isn’t students who are most terrified. The idea of eighteen year-olds flocking to companies to apply for open positions that normally 21-year old college graduates apply for is something that causes many HR recruiters to grimace and facepalm. The quality of graduates that apply to companies has been on the decline for many years now. Many a company have been seeing it as a great challenge to find the right candidates to fill job openings. Many applicants who are 21-year old fresh grads from college do not even make it past the initial interview. Now companies would have to contend with 18-year old highschool graduates. Good luck to that. Worse, many companies are already torn between having to invest more in new employee training or cut down company costs by reducing allocation for the same. I’m guessing they will begrudgingly succumb and choose the former.

However, there is a reason why companies are opting to cut down on training costs. Most company trainings are not as effective as they should be. Arguably, one of the reasons I would assert, is the quality of learners, most of whom, see company training as an extension of their school life. In fact, many fresh grad trainees still behave and think like students. And not always the good kind. I can already imagine trainers cringing at the mere thought of being forced by their superiors to further adjust their training delivery styles to cater to an even younger set of learners, and bawl at the mere idea of having to train teen-agers to do corporate work.

Companies are not the most worried, though. An additional two mandatory years in high school hypothetically means that SY 2016-2017 and SY 2017-2018 will see college enrollment drop to nil at the freshman and sophomore level and domino upwards. In terms of income for the educational institutions, that’s a cause for alarm. As to how most Philippine colleges and universities plan to address this issue, there is only an eerie silence, news-wise. Let’s hope the silence only implies that they have plans prepared but just do not want the competition to know. My guess is, they do have a few things up their sleeves. How it all pans out, we will know eventually .

So that is the scenario. It seems we are all up for a three-year-long “second phase of chaos” from 2016 to 2019, the first phase of which was marked by the official implementation of K+12, where schools scrambled, and continue to scramble to make the necessary changes to their structure, processes, and curricula. Here’s to hoping there wouldn’t be a “third phase of chaos” in the educational sector, although I predict it would have less to do with the K+12 and more to do with the effects that the ASEAN integration would have on the Philippine education industry.

But I would not call K+12 a curse like many people might call it. In fact, I consider this a welcome development. I say: “The more chaos, the better!”, because, if handled well, it may provide the impetus necessary and the opportunity to innovate and make radical changes in the system of education in the country. In fact, colleges and companies have that opportunity right now to find innovative ways to address both their respective K+12-related issues (hopefully collaboratively), and simultaneously address an even greater issue—the skills gap. Because even as they dilly-dally on this issue, yet another has been brewing and is about to blow up right in the hardened faces of traditionalist academia—the knowledge gap.

Who knows? This K+12 may be a blessing in disguise that would help bridge the disconnect between the corporation that hires employees and the academe that was supposedly designed to produce them. Perhaps this whole bruhaha may be what would finally provide the needed impetus towards breaking barriers and opening new avenues in our stubbornly archaic educational system. And that could only be seen as a good step towards changing paradigms about the relevance, purpose and role of formal education in this age of innovation.

Time will tell. That is, unfortunately, a luxury we do not have.