Regarding the K+12

Ok I agree our young people are not doing well in tests that somehow highlighted how academically deficient are we compared to our international counterparts. But this has been going on for ages already--- why only now? My take on this is: “Napahiya tayo” This is something that Filipinos cannot really accept. Not with the statistics, not will all the economic analysis. Filipinos will do anything just so not to appear “nakakahiya” in the eyes of “ibang tao”. “Hiya” is soul-shaking according to Bulatao (1964) because the threatening danger is on the ego itself. The length of time is not the only factor here. One weakness of the educational institutions is their blatant and almost scandalous practice of benchmarking. How did they know that we’re simply putting in the supposedly 12-year curriculum into our 10-year basic curriculum. Why? It is because international standards somehow pressured us to comply. Filipinos who are so oblivious of time will not conform unless our ego is punctured by “hiya.” We have to be proud of Filipino Time because according to Sollano in Babor (2007), it is our way of protesting our colonial masters upholding human dignity and freedom. Until now we have not shaken out of all these neo-colonial influences even among our policy-makers in the government. If we have to develop a truly Filipino educational system, perspectives must come from cultural studies rather than correlational tests on which the DepEd based its decision for the K+12. So what is the point now, given Filipinos’ behavior in relation with “hiya” and Filipino time, we have to devise a system that does not only increase the number of hours in school but also considering Filipinos’ worldview. The way we have been organizing our school years and semesters are just so westernized that we have to bear the hot weather when wearing our togas during summer graduation days. Also the issue on whether to move the start and end of classes when it will not be hampered by frequent suspension due to typhoons. Now regarding the statistics on how prepared students are to be employed or to put up a business. Colleges and universities have not really figured out a way to match the required training and availability of work with the number and quality of graduates. It also shows how these educational institutions do not consider the fact that the Philippine economy is simply serving foreign markets and industries. We have not built industries and markets that are competitive and which we can call our own. Besides, educational institutions are simply dependent on the demands of the foreign labor market (i.e. the issue of the nursing graduates) 

Sources:

Bulatao, J. (1964). Hiya. Retrieved June 30, 2008, from http://www.philippinestudies.net. 

Babor, E. (2007). Heidegger’s Philosophy of Authentic Existence and the Filipinos: Temporal and Historical dimensions. Retrieved October 2, 2007, from http://www.hnu.edu.ph/main/publication/kinaadman/2181007/218100716.pdf