Philippines’ Plan to Add Two Years of School Rankles, and Not Just Students
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

QUEZON CITY, the Philippines — Micaella Serrano, 16, stood in a crowd of students outside the imposing gates of Batasan Hills National High School, tossed her textbooks to the pavement and began to shout.

“Thieves!” she said, throwing her fist into the air. “Dictatorship!”

In the packed hallways of Batasan Hills, Micaella was known as an obedient student who turned her homework in early and spent afternoons refining her English accent.

But now she was helping to lead a political fight. She was devoting nights and weekends to a campaign to block one of the most significant changes to education in the history of the Philippines: a plan to extend the basic education system by two years, creating, for the first time, grades 11 and 12.

The policy, a pillar of President Benigno S. Aquino III’s agenda, was imagined as a way of helping impoverished communities by giving students the skills they need to land high-paying jobs in fields like technology and finance.

But it has inspired a wave of protests and legal challenges. Students worry about a lack of classroom space. Parents say they cannot afford to keep their children out of the work force. University instructors are concerned they will lose their jobs as classes are shifted to high schools.

The policy, which will go into effect in 2016, has prompted a fierce national debate about the government’s role in education and the extent to which it should bow to international standards. In a broader sense, it has provoked tensions between the old, agrarian society and the demands of the modern world.

The Philippines is one of only a handful of countries in the world, and the only one in Asia, that offers fewer than 12 years of basic education.

Since World War II, Philippine officials have debated lengthening the education cycle, but their efforts have fallen flat in the face of budget shortfalls and public resistance, especially in places like Quezon City, a suburb of Manila, where many poorer families expect their children to work at a young age.

“Education happens on the streets and on the farms and in the factories,” Robin Rios, a 56-year-old construction worker, said as he played poker on a street corner here. “Why should we keep our children in school against their will?”

The central government in Manila sees the policy as a long-overdue measure that will give students the credentials they need to compete for high-paying jobs at home and abroad.

Students from the Philippines often face difficulty seeking overseas jobs and admission to universities abroad because their diplomas are not recognized, education officials said.

“We want to give our young citizens a better chance at a decent life,” said Elvin Uy, a Philippine education official.

But in a country where the average household income in 2012 was about 235,000 pesos a year, or about $5,100, many families have rejected the government’s appeal to idealism and see two more years of schooling as a costly burden, not a benefit.

On a recent Friday night in Quezon City, as men gathered to listen to radio comedies and young women lined up to buy custard cakes, Mary Jean Reyes, 34, sat alone on a bench, rubbing her belly. Ms. Reyes would soon give birth to her fifth child, but she was unemployed, having lost her job marinating chicken at a food stand several months earlier. Her husband’s monthly income of about $100 was not enough to ward off hunger and distress.

Ms. Reyes said she hoped that her children, Briget May, Sunshine, Jumo and Franz, would be able to start work as soon as they graduated from school. But she worried that the education policy, which has already made kindergarten mandatory, would result in lost wages for the family.

“It’s not necessary to add two more years,” she said. “It will just be two more years of loitering, and we can’t afford that.”

When the K to 12 Basic Education Program, known as K-12, was put in place by Mr. Aquino in 2012, it won accolades from education experts and business executives. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization called it “absolutely essential.”

But support has dwindled in recent months amid concerns about a shortage of classrooms and teachers. According to a poll released in June by The Standard, a Manila newspaper, 61 percent of Filipinos opposed adding two more years of high school.

Protests on school campuses, many of them organized by groups critical of Mr. Aquino, are common. Six petitions have been filed in the Philippine Supreme Court seeking to block the plan.

In one of those petitions, parents and teachers at Manila Science High School, one of the country’s top public schools, likened Mr. Aquino to the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, arguing that he did not adequately consult the public.

Others worry that adding two years of high school will overwhelm students and exacerbate a dropout crisis. Currently, a quarter of students fail to graduate from the 10th grade.

University professors have become leading voices of opposition. Many are concerned that moving classes for 17- and 18-year-olds from universities to high schools will result in the firing of at least 25,000 university employees.

“From an academic perspective, this is a very good plan; our incoming students will be more mature than ever,” said Rosalie Arcala Hall, a political-science professor at the University of the Philippines Visayas. “But from a logistics perspective, it’s a nightmare.”

Mr. Aquino, who will leave office next year, considers the effort part of his legacy and has worked to counter criticism of the plan in recent months. In his state of the nation address in July, he compared graduates under the old system to mangoes “induced to ripen under artificial circumstances.”

“Now, we are ensuring that the abilities of our students are fully developed,” he said, “so that they can take hold of their futures.”

Since taking office in 2010, Mr. Aquino has more than doubled the education budget. But significant challenges remain. The government must construct 30,000 classrooms and hire 43,000 teachers next year to prepare for the effort.

About a quarter of high schools do not have space to expand to grade 11 next year, according to government data. Students at those schools will be asked to attend nearby schools or be given vouchers to enroll in private programs.

On the trash-strewn streets in Quezon City, confidence in the government is low, and some families worry that the new classrooms and teachers will never arrive.

At a billiards parlor on Karunungan Street, Angelo Vergara, 17, said he thought the government should focus instead on creating jobs. “We already don’t have food to eat, and now we are supposed to trust them to give us new schools?” he said.

At Batasan Hills National High School, students have organized weekly protests, waving signs that read, “This is an anti-K-12 zone!”

Students and teachers are concerned that adding grades 11 and 12 will lead to rampant overcrowding. Batasan Hills is already one of the largest schools in the Philippines, with about 13,000 students, and class sizes sometimes exceed 50 students, educators said.

Micaella, who will begin 11th grade next year under the new system, has dreams of becoming an English teacher. She said she was considering finding a part-time job to help her family pay the bills. Her father is a welder, and her mother does not work.

“I feel sad for the students,” she said. “We are the guinea pigs.”

多念2年書 少賺2年錢
菲61%反12年國教

菲律賓將於明年實施十二年國教，把原本的義務教育延長兩年，看似福祉的政策卻引發民眾強烈反彈。菲律賓家庭普遍收入不高，父母希望子女盡早出社會賺錢，延長義務教育將影響家計，此外各高中也擔心教室空間與教師人數皆不足，無法應付暴增學生。

紐約時報報導，菲律賓是亞洲唯一義務教育不到十二年的國家，現任總統艾奎諾2010年上任後，即把推動十二年國教的「K-12」列為重點政策，延長義務教育至11及12年級。他也此視為個人重要政績，並倍增教育預算。

教育官員和學者皆認為，延長兩年義務教育，可教授學生更多知識或技能，讓他們在國內外求職，或爭取科技、金融等薪水較高的工作時能更具競爭力。

然而立意良善的政策反招致罵聲。據2012年統計，菲律賓平均家戶年收入約為23萬5000披索（約台幣十六萬五千元），許多家長盼望子女中學畢業後盡快工作賺錢。因此政府延長義務教育兩年，對這些家庭而言不是受惠，卻是增加負擔。菲律賓標準報今年6月所做的民調顯示，6成1民眾反對12年國教。

菲律賓首都馬尼拉東北方奎松市每周都有抗議12年國教的示威，聲請最高法院下令停止此計畫的連署已有6份。此外，為因應延長國教，菲律賓政府須在全國增建3萬個教室，增聘4萬3000名教師，目前約四分之一的高中根本沒有空納容納增加的學生。大學教授也抗議延長國教把部分大學課程挪到高中，導致大學須裁員。

反對12年國教的17歲高中生瓦格拉批評，政府更應該做的是增加就業機會。34歲婦人瑪麗珍．雷耶斯正懷著第5胎，她幾個月前失業，丈夫的月薪僅約台幣3200元，根本不夠養家。雷耶斯期待孩子們趕快念完書出去賺錢，她說：「這只是浪費兩年，我們承擔不起。」

明年升11年級的米凱拉．索維諾未來想當英語教師，她說到時會找一份打工。索維諾說：「我為這些學生感到悲哀。我們都是白老鼠。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/world/asia/philippines-fighting-over-plan-to-extend-basic-education.html

2015-10-14．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯莊蕙嘉