Pass or fail? The K-12 program 11 years after its launch

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — In 2012, the Department of Education (DepEd) launched the K-12 Basic Education Program.

Then-President Benigno Aquino III said the curriculum, which added two years of senior high school to the 10-year basic education system, will equip learners with knowledge and skills they need to be competitive worldwide.

Eleven years after its launch, did the K-12 curriculum actually achieve this goal?

World Bank studies

In 2021, the World Bank reported that around 90% of 10-year-old Filipino learners have a problem in comprehension. This made the Philippines as one of the countries with highest rates of learning poverty – which means being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 – in the East Asia and Pacific region.

DepEd, in response, said learning poverty has been the country’s problem for years and it «is proactively dealing with it for the long term.» The department said it has launched programs like Bawat Bata Bumabasa (3Bs) to increase reading proficiency among students.

Another 2021 World Bank report said 80% of Filipino children «do not know what they should know.”

Three global assessments showed only 10% to 22% of Grades 4, 5, and 9 students scored “at or above minimum proficiency,” it said.

This had been taken down after former Education Secretary Leonor Briones demanded an apology for the World Bank’s alleged „outdated and insulting“ report on the country's educational situation. She also said the government was not informed about its release, which is against protocol.