DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 19, 2013) – The League of Filipino Students deplored the Philippines’ decision to remove the Science subject from Grades 1 and 2 classes, saying the move denied students their right to learn.
“Instead of coming up with ideas on how to advance education and making it accessible to every Filipino youth, the Department of Education has chosen to deny them of their right to learn. The only achievement of Department of Education’s illogical decision would be to get every Filipino youth dumb down to their level of reasoning,” Kayong Garduce, a LFS spokesman, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
Garduce questioned the validity of Education Secretary Armin Luistro’s conclusion that the inclusion of science makes studying less enjoyable.
According to the youth leader, the Philippines would actually benefit much from a more scientific education considering the country requires intensive development of its industries if it is to become self-reliant.
The LFS has been one of the most vocal critics of Aquino’s K to 12 program and it also cited the reorientation of education, from being an essential component of nation-building to a mill churning out semi-skilled laborers for export to other countries, as one of its main points why it disapproves of the K to 12.
“Yet the K to 12 opts for a more watered-down version of scientific learning. It is clear then that the future of the Philippines and the Filipino people was not what Aquino had in mind when he adopted this flawed education program,” Garduce said.
“The LFS reiterates the call for the junking of the K to 12 in favor of a nationalistic, scientific, and mass-oriented education accessible to every Filipino youth. The Aquino administration is already running out of excuses in establishing the K to 12 in the curriculum of basic education. We call on every Filipino who refuses to be manufactured as mindless slaves for foreign countries to take to the streets and decisively rid our schools of the K to 12,” he added.
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