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EDGEDAVAO VOL.5 ISSUE 120 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, AUGUST 19 - 20, 2012
AdDU determined to push K to 12 By Vicky Berdina M. de Guzman
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teneo de Davao University (AdDU), a school synonymous to quality and excellence in education, is determined to push the implementation of the K to 12 curriculum. According to Ms Gina Lapaza-Montalan, PhD, dean of School of education, AdDU is now almost halfway in its preparation to implement the much ballyhooed new system of education which has been in the national consciousness since the assumption of Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III as President of the Philippines. Tasked to implement the new curriculum is the Department of education (Deped) headed by Secretary Luistro. Dr. Montalan said Ateneo is fully convinced of the benefits that the country, especially the students and their parents, would derive from this entirely n e w a n d very
different system of education. K to 12 will make its graduates globally competitive., she said. Apart from this advantage, the K to12 students shall have reached the legal age to work upon graduation, which means that they will already be qualified to work even if they choose not to pursue a 4-year college course. At present, only the Philippines and Bangladesh have not implemented the K to 12 curriculum. “There are three phases that we will follow in this new curriculum,” she said. “First is the Curriculum Development, second, the Policy Reformation and third, the Faculty Development.” The AdDU started the preparation by re-articulating the existing curricula
in the basic education unit that served as basis in the curricular development of the programs offered in the Senior high School, which is called the Career Academy in AdDU K to 12 model, Dr. Montalan said. The re-articulation would include the graduate and undergraduate curricular programs. “The first part of the preparation is basically on the curriculum re-articulation, she said, adding that “re-articulation is necessary because, as a university functioning as such for many years now it had a curriculum that it had been following from the Basic ed up to the college, even in the graduate program.” “We are almost completely done re-articulating the curriculum from Kindergarten up to the
Career Academy,” Dr. Montalan said, explaining that the Career Academy is equivalent to Senior high School. She bared that a student who has graduated from the Career Academy will be more equipped and prepared to tackle college work, saying that students are also presumed to have met the competencies needed to be developed in the basic education unit. “These competencies are well-defined in the College Readiness Standards set by the Technical Panel for General education,” Dr. Montalan said. She said AdDU is confident that a Senior high School graduate would be competitive within or outside the country, either for the college course or for work. After the student finishes the 11th grade, on his last year, he/ she will take a test
which would guide him/her what to pursue—go to college or find a job. however, the student is still free to decide what to do, whether the student took the prework track or the pre-college track. Dr. Montalan said that the common subjects will be offered on the 11th grade, while the specialized subjects on the 12th. Aside from the re-articulation of the curriculum, the university will also re-tool and realign the faculty and re-formulate operation policies. For this, Montalan said Ateneo might need another campus for this purpose. She also added that the reform of the curricula opens the university to an enrollment Loss in the college level by SY 2016-2017 when there will be no first year college students who
are supposed to graduate in four years time (SY 2019-2020) as a consequence of the loss the first year enrollment in SY 2016-2017. But in spite of this, the AdDU is determined to push the K to 12 curriculum implementation. In addition to this, Dr. Montalan said, “we are after the students to be globally competitive.” however, the said enrollment Loss in the college are planned to be covered-up by the targeted enrollment population in Senior high school. Dr. Montalan said that in terms of evaluating a program, one must run for 5 years and for assessment, a program must run atleast 2 years. And so she could only give an assessment or evaluation regarding the K to 12 program after the valid years of being practiced or implemented.