SENATOR Grace Poe on Wednesday stressed the need to revisit the K to 12 education program, adding that the government and the private sector must exert serious effort to “address the seeming lack of job readiness of graduates which could impede their employment.”
At the House of Representatives, Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda agreed with the findings of a recent situational report by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) that students who finished their schooling during the pandemic did not have the needed “soft skills,” including those related to empathy, creativity, resilience and communication.
Poe said both soft skills and technical expertise were keys to landing quality jobs amid tight competition.
“Ten years after it was implemented, we believe the K to 12 curriculum needs an honest-to-goodness review to determine the enhancements needed to make it more responsive and relevant to the needs of our students,” Poe said.
The lawmaker also hoped that concerned government agencies would make the review a priority, adding that the findings also be useful for the joint congressional oversight committee on the K to 12 program.
“We owe it to our learners to deliver on the promise of quality education and sustainable jobs,” Poe said.
For Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, the lack of soft skills was already a problem of the graduates even before the pandemic.
“It’s one of the concerns our educational system needs to address going forward, alongside poor reading comprehension, among others,” Angara said.
He pointed out that parents must also do their part as much as possible, “though this is difficult with OFW parents and other realities on the ground.”
For his part, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said he was alarmed with lots of things happening in the country.
Pimentel noted that young Filipino adults also have difficulties in buying or owning a house.
Since life became more difficult, he said the people have to be productive citizens.
“We have to invest in human capacity especially while our people are still young, and equip them with skills which will be useful and practical in life,” Pimentel noted. Sen. Francis Tolentino said however, that he did not agree with the CHR conclusion on the youth.
While there are some perceived deficiencies relative to the online delivery of instruction, he said some “soft skills” such as time management, perceptiveness, listening and self-discipline, among others were developed during that pandemic online experience.
Perhaps, he said, some interpersonal skills were not nurtured, but just the same, coupled with the hard skills they learned, the graduates were competitive.
“Let’s just hope our economy recovers soon,” Tolentino said.
According to Sen. Risa Hontiveros, this has been a long time problem of the education sector. She said policies have already been studied and implemented.
“The question is; to what extent do the education authorities execute these recommendations?” she asked.
“We hope that EDCOM 2 will formulate a game-changing strategy to address the wicked problem of the sector and that the leadership of our educational agencies is committed and competent to execute it in partnership with the different stakeholders, especially the teachers and the students,” Hontiveros said.
“The last thing we need is an employment crisis on top of an education crisis. Especially because our graduates are being thrust into a post-pandemic world of historical inflation with which many families are struggling,” she said.
The government, Hontiveros also said, must support them in their hunt for gainful livelihood.
“The observation is consistent with global studies which indicate that learning did suffer as a result of being forced to isolate and study without the company of peers,” Salceda said. This could be among the reasons why unemployment rate among the youth could be significant.
“I wouldn’t immediately jump into the conclusion, however, that the lack of ‘soft skills’ is primarily the source of youth unemployment,” Salceda stated.
“If anything, looking at the PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) labor data on professions, it appears that hard skills suffered just as much, if not more during the pandemic,” Salceda stated.
The House resident economist also cited the issue of finding it hard to land jobs exists in the context of elevated inflation. “Food, fuel, and power are expensive – so we need to keep their prices low to keep wages competitive. That is the best way to produce enough jobs to hire new entrants to our workforce,” he said.
But the jobs figures seem to indicate a problem of hard skills, as well, Salceda added.
“Almost all professions increased in number of employed persons year-on-year from February 2022 to February 2023, except the following:
a. Managers (lost 941,000)
b. Skilled agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (lost 108,000)
c. Crafts, trades, and related workers (lost 30,000), Salceda explained
According to him, the case for a soft skills deficit can be made for the loss of managers, although economic conditions and firm structure likely explain that number better. But the loss of jobs in skilled professions is a clear and undeniable problem of hard skills.
“Soft skills” itself as a class of skills requires certain hard skills. In my conversations with the BPO sector, one key skill issue is that while Filipino BPO workers, particularly in the voice sector, are very courteous and respectful, some of them lack the technical competence to efficiently solve the customer’s problem.
“Other soft-skills, such as leadership, depend on technical proficiency and competence, too,” he said.
Salceda said to address the issue on youth unemployment in relation to soft skills, the government and stakeholders concerned must “figure out what kind of skills, in general, does our economy need to thrive and be resilient.”
“Certain skills are obviously more relevant: language proficiency, particularly in English, engineering, the computer sciences, and increasingly, medical sciences — especially in an ageing world.
“Certain soft skills are also essential, especially those relevant in entrepreneurship and innovation,” he stressed.