Philippines did not scrap final two years of high school

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 25, 2023 at 11:46
2 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

The Philippines has not scrapped the final two years of high school, contrary to false posts shared on social media which have misrepresented remarks by Vice President Sara Duterte. An education spokesman told AFP that only legislation can prompt such a change. No law shortening the archipelago's basic education has been passed as of August 25.

"No more K-12, it's back to K-10," reads part of a Facebook post shared on August 10.

"K-12" refers to the Philippine national education programme which mandates 13 years of schooling, from kindergarten to 12th grade.

The scheme was established in 2013 in a bid to align basic education in the country with the rest of the world.

Before this, the Philippines had a 10-year basic education system, consisting of six years of primary education and four years of high school.

The post features a clip showing Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte announcing the launch of an adjusted curriculum that covers "K to 10" -- the first 10 years of schooling.

The clip has been viewed over 430,000 times.

Similar posts were also shared on Facebook and YouTube.

Comments left to these posts indicate many social media users believed the claim.

"This is true, students graduating in 2024 won't be part of the K to 12 program," one wrote in Tagalog.

Another said: "For a parent like me, this is good news!"

The claim is false.

Misrepresented remarks

Duterte's clip featured in the posts corresponds to the 50:41 to 52:27 mark of a video streamed live on YouTube by the Department of Education on August 10 (archived link).

Nowhere in her speech does Duterte announce K-12 had been scrapped. Instead, she announced changes in the first 10 years of basic education that would take effect beginning school year 2024-2025.

The adjusted curriculum will focus on literacy and numeracy skills, and the number of subjects in the first two grades will be reduced from seven to five, she said.

Duterte added that the curriculum for the final two years of high school "is currently being reviewed".

Education spokesman Michael Poa also refuted the claim, telling AFP on August 24: "K-12 is mandated by law. DepEd cannot unilaterally change that without legislation."

A bill filed at the House of Representatives in April proposed making the final two years of K-12 required only for students pursuing tertiary education (archived link).

A check with the House website shows the measure remains "pending" at the committee level as of August 25:

AFP has previously debunked a similar claim that senior high school had been replaced by mandatory military service.

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