Philippines did not add one more year of high school
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 6, 2023 at 10:26
- 3 min read
- By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines
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The false claim was shared on a Facebook post on November 15 that has since racked up over 2.7 million views.
The post features a reel that appears to show a TV news report with the headline "DepEd announces Grade 13", using the popular abbreviation for the country's Department of Education.
The purported report features an image of former education chief Leonor Briones, who stepped down in June 2022 and has been replaced by Vice President Sara Duterte (archived link).
The current Philippine "K-12" basic education curriculum is composed of kindergarten, elementary (Grades 1 to 6), junior high school (Grades 7 to 10) and senior high school (Grades 11 to 12) (archived link).
It was set by a law signed in 2013, replacing an earlier 10-year basic education cycle that consists of six years of primary education and four years of high school (archived link).
This shift to K-12 has been the subject of repeated misinformation debunked by AFP here and here.
Although the Facebook reel includes a hashtag that says "funnyreels", comments suggest some users were misled.
"I studied under the K to 12 programme, and if I can only say one thing, an extra year in high school is a huge expense. Introducing another grade level isn't going to help us," wrote one user.
"What about us poor students? Our parents are already struggling to send us to school, then you're going to add another grade level?" another said.
Similar false posts about an additional "Grade 13" have been shared online including on Facebook here, here, here, here and here, and on TikTok here, here and here.
'No plans'
Education spokesman Michael Poa refuted the claim, telling AFP on December 5 his agency has "no plans at all" to introduce Grade 13 in Philippine schools.
Poa previously said: "K-12 is mandated by law. DepEd cannot unilaterally change that without legislation."
Keyword searches on the websites of the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives found no bills proposing to add Grade 13 to the the country's basic education system (archived links here and here).
The education department had previously dismissed claims about an additional year of high school when similar posts surfaced in 2020.
"DepEd never announced the addition of another year level in the K-12 basic education system," reads a June 8, 2020 Facebook statement (archived link).
Philippine news organisations Rappler and Vera Files earlier debunked these posts.
A Google reverse search of the image of former secretary Briones found it shared on the agency's official Facebook page on April 22, 2019 (archived link).
It was part of a photoset on a ceremonial signing between the education department and its partners.
A meme generator appears to have been used to insert the fabricated TV report banner.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in one of the false posts (left) and the photo of Briones (right):
Vice President Sara Duterte, the current education secretary, announced curriculum changes in August in the first 10 years of basic education, but said nothing about adding another grade level (archived link).
The changes will entail focusing on literacy and numeracy skills and reducing number of subjects in the first two grade levels, she said.
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