“Majority of the enrollees, with the consent of their parents, enrolled in the academic track,” said Dr. Joven La Rosa, a program supervisor of the city schools division here. “That career track prepares students for college degrees,” he added.
This track, in addition to the core curriculum of eight learning areas, has the four strands of accountancy, business and management (ABM), science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), humanities and social sciences (HUMMS), and general academics.
Out of the 1,750 students, only about 25 percent opted to take technical-vocational-livelihood (TVL), sports and arts design tracks, said La Rosa, who is a member of the focal team implementing the senior high school program.
Out of the three, 10 percent are in technology-vocational-livelihood track, 10 percent in sports, and five percent in arts and design, he added.
The TVL track has specialized strands (subjects) on home economics, agri-fishery, industrial arts, and information and communications technology (ICT) while for sports, safety and first aid, human movement, coaching, sports officiating, and sports leadership. The arts and design track covers nine subjects. eight of which require 80 hours each semester.
The implementers here of the K to 12 senior HS program are three public high schools, three private schools, and the Central Luzon State University (CLSU).
In CLSU, out of its 1,421 enrollees, only 26 are in the agriculture and fishery strands, according to Dr. Myrna Umagat, dean of the CLSU college of arts and sciences. About 750 are in STEM, 140 are in HUMMS, and 105 in accountancy and business administration, she added.
She said the instructors and professors in her college will teach the K to 12 students in CLSU.
La Rosa said the concept of K to 12 senior high school curricula was well publicized.
“We met the students and parents of the incoming senior high school students and explained everything about the program, particularly the career tracks offered,” La Rosa said.
He said that even though they underscored that many companies have expressed the willingness to take at once the students who graduate under the K to 12 program with the particular job skills, provided they pass the accreditation of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), most of the enrollees and their parents were not attracted.
La Rosa, however, said that nothing was wrong about that. It would only show that during regular classes, only a few students will be in the classes for the skills training and as many as 40 in other tracks per class.
At CLSU, the incoming senior high school students under the K to 12 program will be attending classes starting August 8 while the students in other implementer-schools on June 13. Some of the students in CLSU, CAS dean Umagat said, came from various places that included the provinces of Isabela, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and others.
Those from far-away places would be lodged, with a certain fee, in dormitories.
Under the education voucher program of the Department of Education, the public high schools will be given P17,500 per student, P14,000 for private schools, and P8,750 for state universities and colleges.
