SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian backed the review of the K to 12 program saying that it failed to deliver on its promise.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture said that a review will pave the way for the necessary amendments.

“One of the biggest selling points of the K-12  when we were discussing this in the past was to guarantee employment to our senior high school graduates, meaning we add two years but in exchange, or at least the benefit in adding that two years is for our senior high school students to be employed, but it’s not happening,” Gatchalian said.

Companies are not hiring senior high school students because they think they lack the skills, he said.

“And a lot of our senior high school graduates are not getting employed. So the promises are not happening. And this is actually one of the biggest disappointments of the K to 12. That’s why we need to review it,” the senator said.

“We need to take a look on how to tweak the K to 12 system. I don’t agree with going back with the 10-year schooling system because the whole world is now K to 12. Regressing is not the solution, but what we should do is to look at the senior high school program, fix it and make sure that our senior high school graduates are going to be employed,” he added.

Gatchalian cited the observation of some experts that the K to 12 curriculum is too congested and that students are being taught so many competencies and subjects that they end up learning nothing.

“That’s number one, and number two, we need to look at the tracks in senior high school, specifically the tech-voc  track. The tech-voc track is designed to give additional skills to our senior high school students giving them NC I and NC II certification. But are those skills needed by the industry? And is the training being given to the senior high school students enough in terms of time and in terms of technology?” he said.