The K-12 program was an initiative of the Noynoy Aquino administration. The program, as we all know, is widely practiced in the educational system of Western countries, especially the United States of America. Since the Philippines is only one of the few countries that do not implement such a program in secondary education, the country followed the steps of Western countries by formulating our K-12 program to be at par with these countries. One of the objectives of the program is for globalization.
In its purest form, the K-12 program is aimed at exporting more Filipino citizens outside the Philippines to work. We simply are not changing the mindset of our men and women for the betterment of the Philippines because in the first place, we have created a program, that is patterned with that of the Western countries. We may be, as Renato Constantino has put it, miseducating our fellow countrymen in the sense that we are teaching them to be more like Americans, through the adoption of the K-12 program, and not to be Filipinos. As Boller and Halbert (2015) stated, “Globalization… and migration have all helped disrupt the alignment between the individual citizen and their country of origin”(p.304).
We are creating Filipino citizens who will then migrate in America and become American citizens leaving behind their Filipino identity since we have patterned our education’s objective is to globalize. We are even proud to have our own “green card”. Unlike American expats living abroad who are in an advantage since they carry with them a privilege of being an American, Filipinos do not have that kind privilege since we are a part of, as they call it, the Third World country. Some accounts even stated that Filipinos are not proud to be called as such because being Filipino has a negative connotation. I believe this is true. I have heard my cousin once, who was born and educated in London, that he is not a Filipino.
We are merely creating a new generation of OFWs to work for America. Furthermore, we may lose the young men and women of our country, the Pag-asa ng Bayan, who will care, love, and fight for the Philippines. In a sense, we are giving up the success story of the Philippines because we are building a nation, that do not honor and strengthen the country, including its culture, its ideals, its own development. We do not aim to be Citizens of the World, rather, citizens of America through the adoption of the K-12 program.
–Pinakbet
Boller R. & Halbert, D. (2015). American citizenship and expatriatism: identity and politics outside the state. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13621025.2015.1006582?journalCode=ccst20.
Constantino R. (2002). Mis-Education of Filipinos. Journal of Contemporary Asia. Retrieved from https://filipinostudies.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/constantino.pdf.
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