Anti Poor - Proposed 12 year Basic Education

The proposed 12 year Basic Education program of the Department of Education is anti poor. It is anti poor because:

1. It adds two years expenses for parents before their children can graduate - at least 20% more expenses that could have been used for other basic needs such as food, clothing, housing, health, etc.
2. It adds at least 20% more costs to the government that could have been used for more important productive uses such as irrigation systems, roads, agricultural production facilities, health, reforestation, Exclusive Economic Zone protection, water systems, waterway rehabilitation, housing, etc., etc.
3. 20% more students are in the non-productive mode in the education system, rather than in the productive employment mode.

The only sectors that I can see who will benefit from the proposed 12 year Basic Education program, and who will naturally support this are:

1. School owners - it will mean 20% more students resulting to higher revenues and profits
2. Book publishers - it will mean 20% more books resulting to higher revenues and profits
3. School supplies businesses - it will mean 20% more school supplies resulting to higher revenues and profits
4. Construction companies - it will mean a one time 20% more buildings and facilities resulting to higher revenues and profits
5. School bus operators - it will mean 20% more students to transport resulting to higher revenues and profits

As we can see, it´s the rich business owners who will benefit from the proposed 12 year Basic Education program. And the poor who will suffer the consequences.

The rationale for the proposed 12 year Basic Education program is that our graduates pale in comparison to the graduates of those countries that have 12 year Basic Education program, like the U.S. I beg to disagree with this as our high school graduates are as competitive in the entrance examinations to U.S. colleges and Universities. Our college graduates are also in high demand by foreign employers.

It is accepted that the Basic Education program needs to be improved. But it should not be anti poor that will lead to the situation where more of the poor will become Out Of School Youth, thus continuing and exacerbating the poverty cycle.

Instead, what must be done is to make the present Basic Education program more affordable to the poor and universally available. The money for the additional 2 year levels should be spent on this, instead of spending it to benefit the richer sectors of the society.

The main things that should be done are:

1. Maintain 1:30 teacher to student ratio in every class
2. Maintain 1:1 class to classroom ratio in every school
3. Concentrate on Reading, Writing, and Values on the first two years
4. Stop the textbook churn where textbooks are constantly changed, benefiting only the book publishers and corrupt officials while producing error-prone books
5. Standardize school building designs that can be used as calamity evacuation areas, to reduce cost and corruption
6. Provide all teachers access to computers to ease their work load and research
7. Stop all demolition of school buildings until no. 2 above is reached, and require repairs instead
8. Increase the basic salary of teachers to P25,000 per month
9. Use Information and Communications Technology such as the computer, Internet, cell phone, radio, television, to make education accessible to all

The primary objective of the Basic Education program is to graduate productive and nationalistic Pilipinos.