TAGUM CITY — The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA), a conglomeration of private schools, colleges and universities in the country, has expressed its full support to the implementation of Department of Education’s senior high school program next school year, an official said on Thursday, March 10.
Brother Jun S. Erguiza FSC, chairperson of COCOPEA, said the group will “embrace entirely and whole-heartedly” the government’s K to 12 program.
“It (K to 12 Program) is challenged in all forms and confronted with resistance from all sides. COCOPEA is very much up to the challenge and committed to making sure that this reform is embraced entirely and whole-heartedly,” Erguiza said.
He said COCOPEA’s 2,000 member institutions across the country will implement the program next school year 2016-2017. These institutions will have various course offerings that will be offered in Grade 11.
Program offerings include academic track, technical-vocational- livelihood track, sports track and design track.
Under the academic track, schools will offer the following strands: accountancy, business, and management (ABM), humanities and social sciences (HUMSS), science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and general academic strand (GAS).
In Davao del Norte, there will be 125 schools to offer senior high school, 66 in Compostela Valley province, 210 in Davao del Sur and 75 in Davao Oriental, according to a document obtained by Davao Today from DepEd.
The Education department said that “4,656 private high schools, private and public universities and colleges, and technical-vocational schools will begin offering Grade 11 in 2016 and Grade 12 in 2017.”
Aside from the private schools, DavaoToday learned that 5,902 public schools, which were operated and funded by DepEd, will begin offering Grade 11 in 2016 and Grade 12 in 2017.
These public schools will utilize new classrooms and facilities constructed under the 2014 and 2015 budgets of DepEd or other fund sources, or use available facilities for Senior High School, DepEd said.
COCOPEA believes that the country’s basic educational system needs to have a major reforms. The group claims that the government’s K to 12 program will prepare the students for a “life-long learning and employment.”
“We are confronting the rapid structural changes happening in the education [sector] brought about by the preparations for the full implementation of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013,” Erguiza said. “It (K to 12 Program) is for the good of our people, especially the young, and future generations of our nation.”
Erguiza stressed: “We are at the last leg of the successful implementation of the K to 12 [Program]—the first substantial reform in a long time. [However], any reform does not come easy.” (davaotoday.com)
