K+12 and Beyond

Wow! It has been more than two years since my last blog here. It is a New Year's resolution of sorts to revive this blog to chronicle my thoughts.

I have received several emails and messages from friends and acquaintances if I know something about how the K+12 education system will be implemented. Typical questions pertain to whether their Grade 6 or Fourth Year High School kids will graduate this year. Or will their current First Year HS kid be affected by the new system?

To be honest, I didn't know how to answer such questions so I asked some of my colleagues about what they know and if I understood them correctly, then this is what will happen:

General Information

(1) Once fully implemented the old system of students going from Grades 1 to 6 then High School year 1 to 4 will be replaced by a continuous system of students going from Kinder then Grades 1 to 12.

(2) Current High School students (year 1 to 4) are not going to be affected by the new system. They will still graduate after 4 years of high school.

(3) Current Grade School students will still graduate when they reach either Grade 6 or Grade 7 (depending on the current system of their school). However, they will either have to take 6 years of "high school" (if they graduate as Grade 6) or 5 years of "high school" (if they graduate as Grade 7).

Public School System

OLD: Elementary schools officially offer Grades 1 to 6
NEW: Elementary schools will now offer the K (Kinder) level

OLD: High schools offer year 1 to year 4
NEW: High schools will now offer Grades 7, 8, 9 and 10 (junior high school) plus two more years of Grades 11 and 12 (senior high school)

Private School System

How private schools will adapt to the new scheme will depend on what is their current offering for their grade school system. A quick survey of Metro Manila private schools show that most of them already offer at least one level of 'preschool' (usually Prep or a sequence of Kinder 1 then Kinder 2) and 7 levels of grade school. Assuming this, the change in private school system will be:

OLD: Grade School offers Prep to Grade 7.
NEW: No change

OLD: High schools offer year 1 to year 4
NEW: High schools will now offer Grades 8, 9, 10 and 11 plus an additional year of Grade 12.

I know that my understanding of the new system will probably lead to other questions. I haven't even touched the discussion about the new curriculum and the need for additional infrastructure this change will need. I might even be wrong on some of the points. Feel free to enlighten me.

With this new K+12 system already in the process of "transforming and rolling-out", I do have high hopes that it will improve the current state of our educational system. In fact, I refuse to accept its failure. We'll see.