Education and Unemployment: K to 12 Curriculum as Tool to Solve the Problem

The youth unemployment rate in the Philippines right now is increasing. A lot of adolescents stopped their education and is expecting to enter to the workforce but are unable to employ. One contributing factor is the educational background. Even abroad, Filipino graduates are not recognized. To aid this problem, the Government implemented the K to 12 Curriculum in the President Aquino’s period to add two years in the secondary education to help the students prepare for higher education and for employability. It was already two years since it was implemented and there are certain positive outcomes about it. Results regarding about it shows that the implementation leads to the economic growth of the Philippines. It was concluded that education and unemployment has a relationship and in this essay we will find out how K to 12 can be a tool to solve it.

The quality of education in the Philippines is considered as poor because of the low achievement scores of Filipinos. It also reflected in the higher rate of those unemployed citizens since most of the requirements for job employment is the educational background and obviously those who undergone higher education were given more priority. Even in the foreign countries, they believed that finishing a 10-year program (starting from elementary) is not enough. With this, the probability of the Filipinos getting a job especially for the OFWs and the professionals outside the country is very low and the unemployment rate continues to rise.

A recent report recorded for July 2017 showed that the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7 percent, higher than the past year which is 5.4 percent for July 2016. These Filipinos are considered to be unemployed through a given standard either they don’t have a job or they are currently seeking a job. In these criteria, housewives, students, retired workers and disabled persons are not included since they are not part of the labor force.

The increasing rate of unemployed Filipinos is a major issue that our government had anticipated and is now finding its solution. This issue affects the country especially in economic aspect. Those unemployed citizen had grown wider and wider and results to another issue which is the increasing rate of low-class family or below lower class stage. Report from ADB showed that, the number of Filipinos in the year 2006 living below the poverty line had risen for about 3%, from 30 percent it rises to 33 percent. At the same time, the average income of real household fell 3 percent and the numbers could have worsened since then.

One of the monetary strategies for a country to at least lift its economic status is by having citizens who have jobs and are able to pay the government taxes. These taxes are intended for the projects, programs or activities of the government to ensure the welfare of its citizen and to provide assistance especially to those who are in need. The employment rate may also reflect on the country by having the capacity to provide jobs to its people. That is why the government gives another alternative for the people to at least reduce their burden on finding jobs or sources of income for example the livelihood programs, income generating projects and the Macro-economic Stabilization Policy which aims to aid the need of the people financially until the recovery of the economy.

The main quest for this is to answer why there are still a lot of unemployed people despite of the opportunities given. The argument for this is the government offers sources of income just like livelihood programs to the people but the people itself are not educated enough to perform the necessary work to do in a specific work field. Also, private companies or private investors require to have workers who had undergone higher education or at least secondary. It is unwise to say that government should lower its standard or have no standard in giving the people a job because this will only create another problem and may result to some unproductive outcome. Standards are given to guarantee, if ever, a faultless and equipped workers that will contribute in improving the humanity. If making solutions, downgrading should not be an option. Instead, looking on the brighter side on how to improve and harnesses whatever the things involved.

One of the obvious factors of this unemployment issue is the quality of education of the Philippines. As seen in public, most of the unemployed people are those who were not able to finish their studies or those who are high school graduates only. In the unemployment rate of the Philippines, 76.1 percent belonged to age group 15-34 years. Those in the age group 15 to 24 years comprised 46.7 percent and those in the age group 25 to 34 years, 29.4 percent. It was showed that among the unemployed, mostly are males and by educational attainment, 31.8 percent were high school graduates and 19.6 percent were college graduates.

Another concern for youth who are unemployed is the age specification or the age limitation for a certain occupation that offers. Age does matter in this situation. The ages 15- 24 years are seen to be too young and inexperienced for a job while the ages 25 to 24 ages struggle on competing with the fresh graduates who acquired better education for some available jobs. According to Lavrinovicha, the differences of the income and the probability in getting a job are analyzed by looking to level of the education the applicant had acquired.

In addition, even Filipino professionals are not automatically recognized as professionals abroad since in the Philippines a10-year education was implemented which is very different to other nations because they already have Senior High School in their curriculum and the Philippines is the only one among Asian countries who are not implementing the same curriculum.

The Issue of Unemployment in the Philippines

Talking about the issue of unemployment in the Philippines is so helpful and essential for at least it can give information as to why such matter happens and what can be the possible solutions for it. It can be the venue to address the contributing factors and can help in finding the keys and inform the Filipinos in the current status in employment our government is facing. This is a serious issue to be introduced since our economic standing is at stake.

The obvious way to address this issue is to first solve the education system of the Philippines. The level of Education and Unemployment has a great relationship and it’s really clear that the rate of unemployment decreases as it passes from a lower level of education to a higher. Education contributes on the salary growth to an individual and it is related with the reduction poverty, illiteracy and income inequality.

It is very evident that the government has the capacity to enhance the curriculum in terms of budget, funds, and human resources. Plan on how to upgrade the education system which it is accessible, pocket-friendly and really provide quality education that creates a globally competitive Filipinos that may contribute in the development of the nation.

As early as 1925, a lot of surveys and studies observed the inadequacy of the basic education in the Philippines and further recommends adding a year or years in the curriculum that prepares the student for their career choices. The UNESCO Mission Survey and Swanson Survey, recommended the restoration of Grade 7 in the curriculum. It was further added by the Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM), stated in their report that if ever a reform was to be implemented in the education system of the Philippines and if this reform means adding more years, it recommends either Seven years of Elementary education or Five years in Secondary education.

As a response to this matter, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III approved the implementation “Enhanced Basic Education Program” or otherwise known as K to 12 Program in the year 2016. This new program is the newest effort of the government to elevate the educational system to reach the global standard which is the 12-year education. The K to 12 means, a year for Kindergarten and 12 years for the elementary and secondary education. This new curriculum was one of the promises s of President Aquino, thus included to the priority list of bills to be approved by Legal-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

The purpose of this new curriculum is to create a functional basic education system that will produce productive and responsible citizens equipped with the essential competencies and skills for both life-long learning and employment. The goal for this new curriculum is to prepare the graduates in higher education, to employ with higher wages or to start their own business and to be recognized abroad. As Isagani Cruz put it, “The whole point of the entire K to 12 reform is to answer the needs of about 30 million young people (those below 24 years of age) who have not finished Fourth Year High School. Of the out-of-school youth of employable age, more than six million are unemployed, primarily because they do not have the skills that employers want.” The key points for this new implementation are “preparation” for higher education, “eligibility” for entering domestic and overseas higher educational institutions, and immediate “employability” on graduating, all leading toward a “holistically developed Filipino”.

This new curriculum is very helpful in untying the problems regarding the youth unemployment in the Philippines because it has specialized areas wherein students can choose among three tracks namely Academic, Technical- Vocational and Sports and Arts (Bigcas, 2016). The expected graduates of this new curriculum will possess competencies that will help them equipped in entering the job market and be able to adjust and meet the fast-changing demands of society. Also graduates will be prepared for higher education and will be recognized abroad.

The additional two years in secondary education doesn’t mean additional financial fees. Instead it can lessen the burden financially especially if the student wants to pursue college. The Grade 11 and 12 are just like a two-year college education. In the public school, the tuition fee is free and the number of years in college will decrease because of redundancies and it means that it will have fewer years to pay for college.

This new curriculum had been running already for about 2 years. Months from now, it will have its first graduates in Senior High School. The main question for this is, is the implementation of K to 12 Curriculum successful in achieving its goals and meeting its expectations?

Results and Discussion of the Paper

The main problem that this paper is presenting about is the increasing rate of youth unemployment and one major contributing factor to it is the quality of education Philippines is offering. Since K to 12 Curriculum had been implemented, outcomes and results are deeply expected. The result of this implementation is very beneficial not only for the students but also to the country.

As a result, thestudents are now eligible to apply for a job since upon graduating Senior High School they are already in their 18 years and above, and they have already acquired the skills and competencies relevant to the job market. What’s nice about this program is that the students can be have the opportunity to take NCII Examinations or the TESDA Grants and those who are not able to proceed in college can enter entrepreneurship.

According to DepEd, this implementation will lead to the acceleration of economy growth of the Philippines since its main objective is to enhance the basic quality of education. Lot of surveys showed that the improvements in education may help in increasing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as much as 2%. It was already proven in the countries, UK, India and US, in other studies that those added years in education have a positive overall impact.

Moreover, though, there are still no graduates in Senior High in the Philippines, it was a found that so far Philippines is showing little by little economic growth. In fact, it has grown faster than all other Asian economies except China and Vietnam. In 2017, there is an increase in country’s GDP by 6.7 percent and is perceived to continue grow by 6 percent annually. The increase is an indication that more jobs are offered especially that the need for more teachers are very in demand. Another result from a study indicates that the added years in education particularly with 12 to 16 years of schooling found to have an impact in making the re-employment rates of unemployed increase.

Conclusion

With the current status of the Philippines about youth unemployment, it was concluded that through K to 12, little by little the unemployment rate will continue to decrease and the GDP will soon rise. K to 12 Curriculum is intended to prepare the students in higher education and entrepreneurship. It also make the Filipino graduates be acknowledged by foreign country and be able to compete globally. It also an enhancement on the Basic Education Curriculum and as well as a Transition management of the implementation with less disruption.