The Immediate Implementation of the K-12 Program and its Negative Effects to Philippine Basic Education: Why the Philippines is Not Yet Ready for ...

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With the previous budgets taken into consideration, it could be noted that every year, there is an increase in budget. In the graph above, it is clear that the budget for 2013 is greatly increased to prepare for the K-12 implementation but a 22.6 percent increase will not be enough to cover all the current shortages in teachers, rooms and textbooks and the necessary additions and resources needed for the program. According to data from UNESCO and The World Bank, the Philippines has the lowest education spending in proportion to the total budget in East Asia, as percent of GDP, and per student. Furthermore, the country’s spending level is below the East Asian regional average of 3.6% of GDP and South Asia’s average of 3.8%. This means that even if there is an increase in the budget for the education sector, it is still insufficient, especially now that the K-12 program, a major change in the education system, is implemented.
There is little efficiency attained in today’s public basic education, with efficiency being defined as “the extent to which the goals of primary and secondary education are attained with the given resources.” (Manalang 22). According to Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns on an article by Anne Marxze Umali, there should be one chair per pupil, one comfort room per classroom since some of the children are not yet toilet trained and one teacher for a maximum of 25 pupils. “These are the prerequisites of a Kindergarten program. But since there is no budget for this program, this is not happening in many elementary schools in the country obviously because, first and foremost, the DepEd did not really prepare for this program,”(Melissa San Miguel, spokeswoman of Salinlahi).
According to data from the Depa...

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TIMSS and PIRLS. "About TIMSS and PIRLS." TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center. Lynch School of Education, Boston College, and International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. .
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