Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte has earned the wrath of several militant student groups after announcing his support of the K to 12 program.
“Allowing K-12 to continue is like tolerating crime. This is not the change hoped for by many who voted for Duterte. Ang K-12 ay pabigat at pahirap sa ordinaryong pamilyang Pilipino (k to 12 is a burden for ordinary Filipinos),” Anakbayan National Chairperson Vencer Crisostomo said in a press release.
In a surprising turn of events, Duterte, who had previously said he is against K to 12, changed his mind after meeting with DepEd.
“I was against it on the first day it was being implemented, but the bright guys sa Department of Education came to see me and explained to me how we are failing behind our neighbors,” he told reporters on Monday, May 23.
K to 12 is a program under the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, which was ratified into law by outgoing President Benigno Aquino III. The program will be fully implemented by June 13.
Read: Senior high school to eat up 39% of the daily income of Pinoy families
Youth group’s protest action results in injury
Youth groups, led by Anakbayan, stormed the Department of Education compound on Thursday afternoon, May 26, to express their disappointment over Duterte’s recent pronouncement, and protest the implementation of the said program.
According to a report on GMA News, members of the Kabataan Partylist, National Union of Students of the Philippines, College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines, and League of Filipino Students were among those who joined the protest movement, which resulted in the injury of DepEd’s head of security and one policeman.
Read: Anakbayan: “K to 12 is a human rights violation”
Crisostomo to Duterte: Please hear our side
Crisostomo accused DepEd of presenting a one-sided view of the K to 12 program to Duterte.
“These ‘bright guys’ from DepEd apparently only told the incoming president good things about the K-12 program while leaving out problems like the acute shortages of teachers and facilities. They left out telling him that implementing K-12 will force many students to shift to private schools or just drop out from schooling,” Crisostomo said.
Crisostomo appealed to Duterte to hear both sides, and hopes the Davao mayor will be open to a dialogue with students, teachers, and parents.
Senior Highschool will eat up 39% of a poor family’s income
With only a handful of public schools actually ready for the K to 12 program, the Department of Education (DepEd) estimates that there will be between 1.2 to 1.6 million incoming senior high school students, of which between 800,000 to one million will not be accommodated by the public school system.
Students will, therefore, have no choice but to enrol in private schools or drop out completely.
As such, the DepEd has assured parents that a voucher subsidy amounting from PhP 8,750 to PhP 22,500 will be allotted to students who will choose to enrol in private schools. Parents, however, will have to shoulder all other school fees exceeding the voucher amount.
There are currently two million 4th year high school students in public schools.
But according to Center for Women’s Resources, more than 39% of the earnings of a low-income family will be consumed by the costs of a child entering senior high school in private schools because of the K to 12 program.
The Philippine Statistics Authority pegs the amount needed by a family of five to stay out of poverty at PhP 8,778 per month or PhP 292 a day. This means that each family member will have to survive on PhP 58.52 a day.
Meanwhile, the minimum tuition fee of a private high school could easily amount to ₱35,000– a ₱12,500 difference from even the highest voucher subsidy amount that would then have to be shouldered by the parents.
According to CWR, in order to send a child to senior high school, a family of five would have to set aside PhP 123 a day. That is 39% of their daily income.
Below is a breakdown of the expected minimum expenses of a senior high school student:
Even without the K to 12 program, many Filipino families are already on the brink of poverty.
In a press release, CWR said no family can possibly live decently on just PhP 292 a day.
“How could a family survive on ₱292 per day and still live decently? A kilo of regular milled rice already costs at least ₱38.00, a kilo of galunggong (used to be known as poor man’s fish) is at ₱140.00, and price of vegetables shoots up from time to time. Families still need to spend for transportation, utility bills, educational and health expenses,” said Jojo Guan, CWR executive director.
Read: How to Cope with K-12: 7 Tipid Tips for Pinay Moms
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