Senior high school students who have finished the K-12 program and should be eligible for employment are flooding the job market but prospects remain dim as the country’s employers, disconnected with the government’s goals when it adopted the K-12 program, still generally prefer applicants with college degrees.
Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual hopes to change that, urging companies to rethink their hiring policies and give K-12 graduates a chance.
In a radio interview, Pascual said the K-12 education system provided enough training for its graduates to become “fully functioning employees.” “When K-12 was created, its purpose was to produce [holistically developed Filipinos]. Meaning, if you are a K-12 graduate, assuming it was implemented well, you are ok, you are ready for a job,” the trade secretary said.
However, the prevailing impression is that noncollege graduates are not prepared for the working world, which is wrong, according to Pascual.
Pascual called on employers to review their hiring policies and consider removing tertiary education as a requirement for certain entry-level jobs.
Introduced in 2013, the K-12 education system added Grades 11 and 12 as the SHS stage of the enhanced 13-year basic education system. In March 2018, then Education Secretary Leonor Briones assured employers that the first batch of K-12 graduates were competent and ready to land jobs.
The struggles of the K-12 program, especially by the graduates who were promised they would be employable upon completing it, demonstrate the need for a whole of government approach to support any revolutionary changes, especially when it comes to something as critical as education. Aside from all government agencies involved putting in the work to make it work, the private sector will also have to pitch in by understanding and supporting the thrust of government to rationalize the educational system and make it better for employees, employers, and the Philippines in general.*
