Angara: Marcos wants HS graduates to have skills ready for employment

Incoming Education Secretary Sonny Angara on Saturday said that President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr told him that he wants those who will finish high school to already have the skills for possible job employment. 

"The President did not say the main point of K-12 is to make Pinoys employable abroad. But he did instruct me to make sure our Senior HS grads have the credentials and skills to get jobs as government promised a decade ago when we added 2 years to the basic [Education] Curriculum," Angara said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Marcos earlier said that the K to 12 program was unable to achieve its goal of raising the employability of graduates in the Philippines.

Marcos said he discussed the program with Angara, as he noted that they were looking into having short courses to improve graduates' employability.

"There are two elements we paid attention to specifically... No. 1, ginawa natin 'yung K to 12 dahil hinahanap ang years of training sa ating mga nag-apply at sinasabi dito sa Pilipinas kulang dahil 10 years… That was the reason we did it para employable 'yung mga graduate natin," Marcos said in an ambush interview in Sulu.

(The K to 12 program was implemented because employers tend to look at the years of job applicants' training. In the Philippines, it's only 10 years... That was the reason we did it so our graduates would be employable.)

"Pero kung titignan natin ang naging resulta, hindi tumaas, hindi gumanda ang employability nila. So we have to do something else. Kaya we were examining things like mini-courses, three to six na buwan, one-year short courses para sa mga specialty," he added.

(But if we look at the results, it did not improve their employability. So we have to do something else; therefore, we were examining things like mini-courses lasting three to six months, or one-year short courses for specialty.)

Angara was one of the authors of Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, which institutionalized the government's K to 12 program.

The law restructured the basic education in the country by requiring Filipino students to undergo one year in kindergarten, six years in primary school, four years in junior high school, and two years in senior high school.

Marcos has also instructed Angara to teach Filipino children about the country's history.

He was also told by the President to take care of teachers.

The key to any successful program in the DepEd are the teachers. So I said we have to take care of the teachers, we have to... of course financial, to make sure they can feed their families. Kasi [Because] we tend to forget sometime that teachers have families, we see them as just teachers ... they have families, they have to take care of their families,'' Marcos said.

Angara will be taking over the DepEd following the resignation of its outgoing chief, Vice President Sara Duterte, effective July 19. —VAL, GMA Integrated News