K-12 - Good or Bad?
Advanced, competitive, and up-to-date education - this is the K-12 promise.
What is K-12? To put it simply, it is a new type of education the government devised that requires the students to study an extra two years as Senior High School. They will be called Grade 11 and Grade 12, so instead of the usual Kinder to Fourth year studying years, it would be Kinder to Grade 12 thus, coining the term “K-12.” During these years, the students will be choosing a major such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), ABM (Accountancy and Business Management), Tech-Voc (Technical and Vocational), and HUMSS (Humanities and Social Sciences). These four will be the pathway to their future job so they must choose wisely. After finishing the Grade 12 they may take jobs or continue their study in college where they will enhance their skills even more.
K-12 is also responsible for the new teaching style we have today wherein the learning comes from the students. The basic idea is that the students will be working on activities and the teacher will supervise as they work. If there is a mistake, that’s the time the teacher will go and give an extra hand. This also means that there will be no “spoon-feeding” teaching strategy where the teacher will give lectures and discussions, then have a seatwork and quiz the following days. This would be a rough ride for students who are teacher dependent because there will be more activities, may it be individual or by group.
But are all subjects compatible for K-12 teaching? For some, yes. But on the other subjects, the students will have a hard time learning the lessons. Let’s look into the major subjects’ classroom scenarios.
During English and Filipino classes, the usual pattern is that the students will be asked to read a selection, and then the teacher will ask a few questions regarding it. Their answers retain to their minds so in a way, the learnings and discoveries came from the students.
On Science classes, the idea is that they do experiments, and then the teacher gives the guide questions that will lead to the definition of terms together with their functions and processes. After this the teacher will just discuss summarizing their topic and at the same time adding a few insights to give better stability to their newfound knowledge.
What about in AP? How do we learn history all by ourselves? On topics during Social Studies, like economics, the students can learn and explore. But they need books and discussions when it comes to history so that the students can comprehend the events that transpired in the ancient times.
The same goes with Mathematics. If the teacher gives a sample problem with the solution already in it, how many students can understand it? The Math teachers must be given a different learning strategy to better discuss their topics, but in the meantime, the traditional spoon-feeding will do.
These problems may be solved if only all schools in the country are K-12 ready. But they’re not. Because of this, some schools will have more advanced learning students than those who are not K-12 ready. This will be a good opportunity to the K-12 ready schools to dominate on Division, Regional, and National competitions around the country.
