The K-12 Program: Who does it really favor?

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

Filipino Diaspora

The term ‘expatriate’ is not something I hear on an everyday conversation even though it is a social reality– and it is true for the people that we know, that people travel abroad and live somewhere there if they could. We have always known them as ‘nag-abroad’, ‘nasa abroad’, or the ‘OFWs’. In this paper that we read, they are identified to be expatriates which I don’t hear a lot, but it connotes a more negative term as it is literally synonymous to banishment. It is intriguing that the know connotation of these terms are on polar opposites.

In the Philippines, if someone is known to be working and living abroad people seem to automatically think that they are living better lives, as well as providing more avenues to better the lives of their families. However there is a slight but important difference between the 2 groups of ‘expatriates’ in the Philippines. Firstly, there are the ones who migrate and live abroad in the hopes of becoming a full-pledged citizen together with their families, these are the ones mostly traveling specifically to the United States of America or in Canada and live their life as a citizen– spending their resources their, giving labor to the country, and accruing the benefits of the country. Essentially these are the ones who want to start a life there, build their families, and thrive in their field. It is their way of having better lives than what they have in the Philippines, and passing on that standard of life to their future children. The second form of expatriates are the OFWs. They are the newly recognized Filipino heroes of this generation. Unlike the Filipinos who migrate abroad and turn themselves into a citizen of another country, the OFWs leave their families here in the Philippines. They are still a Filipino and identify as Filipinos. Their way of providing better lives for their family is by sending remittances and balikbayan boxes for the family to spend here in the Philippines. This is usually the set-up for OFWs because most of them only work abroad for a certain period of time to earn enough and come back in the Philippines, and build a better livelihood from the money they saved up abroad, some OFWs are not legal in the country start with. Although some OFWs who do not have kids tend to stay in their chosen country and build a life their as well, which they had deemed to be better.

This phenomenon is understood to be the Filipino Diaspora. Inquirer (2011) says that it was during the administration of Marcos that lead to the widespread Filipino diaspora. It was the severe economic depression, lack of job opportunities and political oppression– Filipinos desperately sought after better lives for their families and took risks and bravely went to strange countries, immersed in different cultures, to take whatever job was available. American expatriates, show that Westerners have an individualistic perspective and culture as they travel and live elsewhere to grow and widen their horizons and better themselves in totality. While the Filipino, having a family-oriented value and a collectivist perspective and culture, shows that they would want to be building their lives here with their families and friends, if they only had the bare minimum opportunities to build the life that they want to.

–Sisig