K+12 Is Not The Answer Mr. President

I remember when Noynoy Aquino ran for president last year, one of his staunch advocacies was to improve our educational system by implementing his K+12 program. He believed that adding more years to our school system will be the answer to our country's lacking educational program. In a presidency that tends to do more "studying and assessing" than actually doing something, it seems ironic that the K+12 was and still is an idea that is devoid of any thoughtful thinking or common sense. Let me elaborate further.

It doesn't take a scholar to know what the biggest problems are in our educational system. The budget is the first thing most would say and that's true - there's no denying that all problems are rooted in money. In my honest opinion though, the K+12 program does not address the more direct problem - having enough resources used for education. What I mean is the lack of classrooms, teachers and even chalk. Adding more years would mean students stay longer in school. Schools and classrooms which are already full to the brim. Another thing is the cost of education. More years mean more costs for parents in the long run. I'm definitely seeing a scenario where more students drop-out because they cannot afford the additional 2 years rather than there actual academic performance.

What's completely wrong about the K+12 program is that the fatal assumption that if other countries are gaining better graduates due to additional schooling years, we would yield the same results. The K+12 program is not the answer because it does not solve the underlying problems our educational system has. In fact, it's going to amplify the problems further in the long run.