Opening a New Road to Lifelong Learning
Elwood L. Prias
Ligao National High School, Philippines
To improve the quality of basic education in the Philippines, the government intends to implement the Enhanced K+12 Basic Education Program beginning school year 2012-2013. From a 10-year education program, the basic education system in the country is now a 12-year cycle that will include kindergarten, six years of elementary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school. However, critics of the new K-12 program say that the additional two years of senior high school will exacerbate current shortages of teachers, classrooms, desks, textbooks, and other inputs to education. Others contend that adding two more years to high school will simply lead to more dropouts among those who can ill afford to be in school and those who need to earn an income as soon as possible in order to help their families.
This paper proposes that a distance education program offering junior and senior high school will provide every Filipino an opportunity to gain the education he/she needs and deserves under the K+12 curriculum. It recommends a national distance education high school program to be implemented in a decentralized manner by a network of participating schools. The paper describes the program’s curriculum as one that incorporates vocational and entrepreneurship courses which should be made accessible to students considering their available resources. The paper also emphasizes the importance of student support to ensure a satisfying educational experience, and identifies the type of support services to be provided to learners. The paper ends with some thoughts on how to convince skeptics that quality basic education can also be provided through distance education as a new road to lifelong learning.
Keywords: K+12, distance education, open schooling