Critique Paper on the K to 12 Curriculum

The central feature of the K to 12 Program is the upgrading of the basic education curriculum to ensure that learners acquire the relevant knowledge and skills they will need to become productive members of society. With the participation of the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the program has the capability of offering professionally designed classes and apprenticeships in sports, the arts, middle-level skills, entrepreneurship, and applied math and sciences. It will take years, but we will have to start with basic prerequisites. Crucial is improving higher education.

As for my arguments in favor of the K+12 educational programs, I offer these insights based not on controlled experiments, but on personal observation only. First, the quality of today’s science and technology graduates all over the world (especially in contemporary physical science and engineering, and increasingly in the life sciences as well) depends critically on the content of the most common technical pre-requisites: 1) mathematics, including calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, probability and statistics; 2) physics, including mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and elementary statistical and quantum theory; and 3) chemistry beyond the traditional molecular accounting taught in survey courses, including some of what is otherwise reserved for intermediate courses in physical and organic chemistry. In today’s increasingly quantitative and computer-driven research environment, these are no longer academic luxuries reserved for a few students, but broad necessities to maintain competitiveness on Education today.

Unfortunately, the traditional 10-year Philippine education cycle almost certainly guarantees that Filipino science and technology graduates