This coming June, public schools will shift to a three-term school year after decades of using the four-quarter grading system. As part of the private education sector, I have learned to follow government directives, if not in the year of implementation, then a year after.
The Department of Education has been doing its best to implement changes that it believes will benefit the general public. There was the Kindergarten Law, implemented sometime after 2010, which formalized preschool education and made kindergarten mandatory prior to enrollment in Grade 1. Another innovation in Philippine education was the implementation of K–12, which added two years of senior high school. As a result, high school levels changed from 1st to 4th year to Grades 7–10 for junior high and Grades 11–12 for senior high.
Every time a new DepEd secretary is appointed, a new policy is introduced. Like any newly appointed official, he or she must present something new, not necessarily the best, as long as their presence in the department is felt and remembered even after their term. During Vice President Sara’s tenure as DepEd Secretary, the MATATAG curriculum was implemented to address learning gaps. However, as of today, I have not encountered any assessment of its effectiveness.
As a nation, while we have a general policy on education stated in the Constitution to make it accessible to everyone, its direction changes with new leadership, from the executive branch to legislators who sponsor new laws to improve the system, and to the DepEd secretary who sets its short-term course.
While new policies are welcome, they should not be based on trial and error. A thorough study should be conducted before dissemination and implementation by frontliners. If the problem with the four-quarter grading system is missed classes due to cancellations, shifting to a three-term grading period will not make the rain stop or fall only on weekends.
As is often the case in the Philippines, decisions made by those at the top affect those below, and we simply have to bite the bullet. At present, teacher groups are voicing concerns that this change came as a surprise and that no proper consultation was done.
The K–12 program, which initially promised to make high school graduates more competitive, has not fulfilled that goal. Job requirements today still specify “must be college graduate,” even for technical positions. Whether college graduates have become better prepared after 12 years of elementary and high school education remains debatable, given the high unemployment rate and the number of people working in fields unrelated to their courses.
Whether a three-term period for elementary and high school will eventually improve students’ performance in reading and math remains to be seen. The long-standing debate on moving the school opening to August was never resolved, until fate intervened through the COVID crisis in 2020. That year, all schools opened in August, not by choice but by necessity, as DepEd and the entire government studied how to proceed. Today, most schools are returning to June, following DepEd’s current direction.
Let’s give this new three-term system a chance. After all, if it proves ineffective, come 2028, when a new president and education secretary take office, another policy will likely be implemented.||
