Why DepEd's K to 12 Is Not Education for All

DepEd's K to 12 adds two years to high school and its enabling act, Republic Act 10533 increases the number of years of compulsory education to thirteen from the six years of compulsory elementary education prescribed by the country's constitution. Public basic and compulsory education implies full responsibility of the government. Basic education means it should be available for all. Looking at what is available tells an entirely different story. It truly says a lot more about how the Philippine government has abandoned its task of providing basic education to all.

Jaq Eroles recently wrote an article for the Philippine Online Chronicles:

In the article, Eroles provides data on what type of Senior High School years are in fact available for students. Eroles uses text to relate the data. However, it maybe useful to translate these numbers into figures.

For the National Capital Region (NCR), out of 10 high schools, only 7 are able to offer Technical-Vocational-Livelihood track.

Only 7 out of 10 high schools in the National Capital Region are able to offer the Tech-Voc track. The Tech-Voc track, of course, comes in so many flavors and the choices are in fact limited. For instance, Eroles cites that "In Commonwealth High School, which has a total student population of 8,045 and ranked as 6th most populous school in NCR, the only available SHS track is TVL with specializations in Beauty/Nail Care (NC II), Wellness Massage (NC II)/Hairdressing (NC II); Bread and Pastry Production (NC II)/Food and Beverage Services (NC II)/Bartending (NC II); and Tailoring (NC II)/Dressmaking (NC II)."

With regard to college preparation, the situation is worse, only 4 out of 10 schools in NCR can offer the General Academic track.

For the same region, only 3 out of 10 schools can offer either the Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) or the humanities strand.

Out of ten high schools only one can offer all tracks for senior high school.

The choices are severely limited and it is obvious that this is not education for all. The total numbers for the entire country are even far disconcerting. Out of 500 high schools, only one can in fact offer DepEd's K to 12 curriculum.

For every 500 high schools in the Philippines, only one school can really offer DepEd's K to 12 Senior High School curriculum

I hope the above picture makes it clear. This is the most blatant demonstration of a government requiring something that it cannot provide. It is appalling.