Displacement of SHS students, teachers in SUCs spawn concerns

MANILA, Philippines — Education groups have expressed worries over the impending displacement and limited options faced by students and teachers affected by the discontinuation of the senior high school (SHS) program in state universities and colleges (SUC).

The Commission on Higher Education last month directed all SUCs to cease accepting new enrollees in senior high school next school year, citing the end of the K to 12 transition period in 2021 and the lack of a legal basis to continue funding senior high school students in SUCs.

The CHED directive also reiterated that there will no longer be any SHS voucher recipients in SUCs, which the Department of Education (DepEd) announced in July, months before the start of the school year (2023-2024), with the only exemption being Grade 12 students for that year.

Public universities and colleges were only allowed to offer Grades 11 and 12 during the K to 12 transition period (school years 2016-2017 to 2020-2021) to mitigate the drop in enrollment that would result from adding two more years of high school.

Since then, however, public universities have become full once again, said CHED Chairperson Popoy De Vera, with SUCs now needing to use their facilities and teachers.

RELATED: CHED: SUCs told to 'wind down' senior high program years ago  

But the CHED directive was akin to a “(haphazard) discontinuation” of the SHS program in SUCs, said teacher group Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) and student group Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK), who stressed the need to first guarantee “improved access and quality of our education system.”

Both student and teacher groups said in a joint statement that the end of the SHS programs in SUCs “will lead to economic displacement for our teachers and threaten our learners’ right to accessible and quality education.”

“While we understand that SUCs and LUCs are mandated to offer the SHS program only during the K-12 transition period, we fear that mechanically following suit without serious consideration of the drawbacks on education stakeholders will lead to another learning crisis,” the joint statement read.

The two groups also expressed concerns over the 17,700 current Grade