THE League of Filipino Students and Kabataan Party-list picketed the Supreme Court on Wednesday to protest the court’s decision to reject the issuance of a temporary restraining order against the K-to-12 program adding two years to the country’s education system.
“The evil design of K to 12 is to privatize Philippine basic education,” LFS national chairperson Charisse Bañez said, noting that the Department of Education’s December 2015 data shows that private schools dominate senior high school.
According to her, only two out of 10 senior high are public in the National Capital Region.
Bañez added that even if there are public schools offering senior high school education, it is meaningless since these schools have very limited slots compare to their current Grade 10 students.
“We would like to remind SC that Article XIV, Section 2 of our Constitution states that the government should establish and maintain a system of free public education in elementary and high school. Under K to 12, the government has shamelessly relinquished this responsibility to private schools,” said Bañez.
“It is clear that K to 12 only guarantees the profit of school owners and capitalist-educators at the expense of our right to free public education,” Bañez added.
She said that K to 12 focuses on technical-vocational courses which promote jobs for export based on the needs of other countries. The youth leader emphasized that K-to-12 undermines the necessity for a national industrialization, rural development, and agrarian reform that will stabilize the country’s economy.
Bañez also noted that K to 12 violates the government’s mandate to inculcate patriotism and nationalism among the youth by removing Philippine history in high school and hindering the development of the Filipino language through curriculum reforms in college.
“K to 12 is a catastrophe. We should never allow such program. We call on all students, teachers, parents, and the rest of our country to further our fight against K to 12. We also urge all candidates to stand with us in our demand to stop K to 12,” said Bañez.
“It is never too late to stop K to 12 especially if the hopes and futures of one million students and an entire country are at stake,” Bañez ended.
According to Bañez, the data from the DepEd also shows that there will be 700,000 to one million students who will be forced to enroll in private senior high schools, private universities, and state colleges that have tuition rates of P15,000 to more than P70,000.