Unemployment and the K-12 curriculum

The school year 2013-2014 have just opened and came with it are the usual woes of teachers, learners and parents. As an educator, I just can’t help but reflect on the current state of Philippine education. First on my list is the K to 12 curriculum.

Recently, the Philippine Government’s Department of Labor and Emploment (DOLE) announced that unemployment is a result of mismatch between jobs available and the skills of Filipino graduates. Last year, 2012 National Statistics Office (NSO) data showed that almost eight of every ten unemployed were able to finish high school, college and some even have post graduate studies!

However, IBON, an independent think tank, their research found that unemployment is rising because employment is scarce. It is not the disparity between school curriculum vs. jobs availability.

Unemployment can also be attributed to the country’s weak industrial sector. If there are plenty of domestic manufacturing in the country, these could create enough jobs, unfortunately this is not the case.

Although the government’s barkers keep on telling the public though the mass media that everything is being addressed, those words are not felt much on the ground level. Well, there’s only one excuse that we had been told and they kept on telling us, “everything don’t happen overnight”.

Doing lip service on the part of the government is not helping at all. Glorifying the education sector workers, especially the teachers through mass media but not doing everything to improve their plight is hypocritical.

The K to 12 curriculum should also focus in equipping students with the skills to develop our country. It is obvious that with the present K to 12 curriculum, it is aimed at answering the need of providing work force for the global market. K to 12 should be developed to harness the creativity of the learners to build new technology and help the country’s industry. New industries mean new jobs and thus solving the country’s unending unemployment predicament.

But for now, we can all cross our fingers and hope for the better.