Is a DepEd Summit needed? (Part 1)

I think the government made a mistake, when in 2016, it added grades 7 and 8 before students can enter high school. Five (5) very bad effects came out when grade 7 was opened in 2016. (1) Thousands of first year high school teachers, lost jobs because on June 2016 no elementary pupils entered high school. There was no more first year high school because it became grade 7. The grade school graduates entered grade 7 (previously called 1st year HS) (2) Elementary schools (public/private) scrambled to look for thousands of classrooms to accommodate the grade 6 students who will enter grade 7. (3) June 2017, the schools again looked for thousands of classrooms for the year’s grade 7 pupils who will be in grade 8. While new batches of grade 8 students enroll, thousands of new grade 8 teachers were also needed. (4) In 2016, DepEd realized that there were not enough pure scholastic subjects to be given to that year’s first grade 7 pupils. Even by dividing the traditional subjects (English, Math, Science, and Social Studies etc.). There were even less pure scholastic subjects to give to the first grade 8 students in June 2017. It was confusing because 1st year HS became Grade 7, 2nd year HS became Grade 8. The curriculum did not change. They added senior High School: grade 11 & grade 12, with a new Curriculum which are adapted from the General Education subjects of first year College. (5) From June 2018 to June 2021, there were few first year College students because beginning June 2016 grade 6 students were required to take grade 7. If 2020 was a normal year, thousands of first year and second year college teachers would have been jobless and the income of the schools would have dropped.

In School Year 2016-2017 and School Year 2017-2018 there were no incoming first year and second year students. DepEd and private schools had to adjust by placing teachers in grade 11 and grade 12. The General Education subjects of first year College were adapted for the senior high school curriculum courses and added a new technical/vocational course.

When the COVID-19 problem is over, the government should ask DepEd and all schools to meet and discuss this grade 7 and 8 rule and give its recommendations. It is not fair to keep the parents and the children of the C, D and E status in the dark about the painful effects of grades 7 and 8 on them. They are Filipinos too, lest we forget, and they are the most vulnerable.

A typical pupil finishes grade 6 at age 12 or 13 and finishes high school at age 16 to 17. The poor/”masa” families ask their children who finish high school to get jobs at once (low paying, manual labors) as trainees, apprentice, summer/part time. Firms save money because they give only allowances, no SSS, no Philhealth benefits, so they accept the youth, provided they can show a high school diploma. This is cruel to the poor ‘masa’ when a new high school graduate supports his parents and his brothers/sisters who are still schooling. Because of the grade 7 and 8 policy, the poor ‘masa’ parents whose backs are heavily bent just to feed and send children to school have to shoulder this new heavy cross, a new heavy cross, a 2-year waiting period before their children can enter high school and get a diploma to work and help the family.