DAVAO CITY — Youth activists condemned anew the K-12 program saying this will only produce cheap labor for other countries.
Vencer Crisostomo, chairperson of Anakbayan claimed that the government’s implementation of K-12 “will worsen unemployment, contractualization and poverty.”
Crisostomo cited think tank Ibon Foundation’s data showing the Filipino youth aged 14-34, as majority of unemployed Filipinos.
“As of January this year, Filipino youth comprises 78.9 percent of unemployed Filipinos under the Aquino administration. Of this, three out of 10 (33.4%) had college education, with at least 20.4 percent actually having graduated, and seven of 10 unemployed youth are high-school or college-educated. These data show that Aquino failed to generate jobs for Filipino youth, and therefore pushing them to poverty,” said Crisostomo.
Crisostomo said Aquino’s labor export policy aided by his K-12 program would produce more cheap labor for export.
“K-12 aims to produce more graduates at a younger age which will compete for scarce jobs, thereby increasing the unemployed and pushing down wages,” he said.
Crisostomo said the government should instead establish a national industrialization program that would generate jobs for every Filipino.
The K-12 program was signed into law in 2013 and is expected to affect an estimated 1.6 million students who will be in senior high school on 2016.
