Teachers oppose 12-year basic education program

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) opposed the Department of Education (DepEd) 12-year basic education program.

ACT Secretary General France Castro said that adding years to the basic education program is not the solution to the crisis in Phil. Education. “We say NO to this plan being pushed by the DepEd and P-Noy. The 12- year basic education program will further deepen the chronic crisis of Philippine education which is caused and reflection of the chronic crisis of poverty and corrupt politics in the Philippines,” said Castro.

The militant teacher organization said that the problems in the country's education is not in the number of years, but inherent to its content and character as colonial, feudal, repressive and commercialized that cares and serve the colonial subservient character and backward economic system of the Philippines.



"The content of Philippine education only means to produce graduates that will merely fill the needs of big multi-national companies for skilled but subservient workers," deplored Castro.

ACT also said the 12-year education cycle will definitely and heavily add to the burden of Filipino family which majority belongs to the poor and further exploit our teachers to more work loads and less and less pay in real value.

Castro pointed out that “all education program of the government implemented from Marcos dictatorship up to the Arroyo regime, like voc-tech, bridge program, etc., does not serve as a solution to the crisis and to the so called “lack of quality” of our education. Instead, this resulted in more intense crisis and problem like decrease in education budget, growing shortages of schools basic needs, higher rate of school drop-outs, and increase of tuition and other miscellaneous fees.”

“We see that the youth who will graduate from this 12- year basic education program of DepED and PNoy will not necessarily lead to more employment, as we all know that the our backward economy cannot provide local employment and the world economic crisis gives no assurance to provide global employment to our Filipino youth,” Castro said.

ACT expressed concerns that the people behind in pushing for this program belongs to the local and international big private business-bankers and technocrats. “We wonder what economic gain do they have in pushing for this program?”

“Unless the government will decisively push for a self reliant economy based on national industrialization and genuine agrarian reform, any move to reform our education will only further its crisis and will definitely fail,” Castro concluded.#