The Role of School Reforms in Organizational

Change and its Impact to Individuals

Report Presented By: Pangantihon, Gracelda T.

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot

change their minds, cannot change anything…”
---George Bernard Shaw---

Photo Credits: https://www.aliexpress.com/popular/human-abstract-painting.html

School Reforms

Six Reasons Why the Philippines Should Switch to K-12 Curriculum

http://k12philippines.com/six-reasons-why-the-philippines-should-switch-to-k-12-curriculum/

1. Only country in Asia with 10 years of basic education – Before

implementing K-12, the Philippines was the last Asian country and one of
only three nations in the world with 10 years of basic education. The new
system, which follows a global standard, will put Filipino students at par with
the rest of the world.
2. Poor quality of education – Students’ low scores in the National
Achievement Test (NAT) and Trends in International Math and Science
Study (TIMMS) are a reflection of the current quality of education in the
country.

Gracelda T. Pangantihon, PhDEL Student | PhDEL 606: Development Perspectives in Educational Administration | Dr. Cesar A. Adegue IV, Professor
 3. Too many non-practical subjects – Supported by the findings of the study
performed by SEAMEO INNOTECH, the country’s old curriculum was too
congested and lacked practical application. While students did not get
enough instructional time to learn, they also missed the chance to be
prepared for actual professional work.
4. Not prepared for college education – Due to lack of practical application,
past high school grads (in the old curriculum) could not qualify to pursue
higher education.
5. Too young for labor force – High school graduates of the old curriculum
are generally less than 18 years old and are too young to work after
graduation. This young age is deemed unripe for them to enter the
workforce or enter into business contracts.
6. No global recognition – Filipino professionals who have finished a 10-year
basic education may not be acknowledged in many parts of the world. This
is due to education requirements set by some international accreditation
agreements.

Restructuring the Philippines’s basic educational system through the K to 12

Program is a tough but strategic move by the government to ensure that it
produces competent graduates who can serve as the backbone for a highly skilled
and employable work force.

Introduced in 2011 by the Department of Education (DepEd), headed by Secretary

Armin Luistro, FSJ, the K to 12 Program made kindergarten a prerequisite to basic
education. It lengthened basic schooling to include a two-year senior high school
and offered technical and vocational courses to students not planning to go to
college, thus giving them more chances of getting employed in blue-collar work.
The program replaced the 10-year basic education curriculum, which consisted of
six years in grade school and four years in high school that concentrated on the
English language and Filipino, the sciences, arithmetic and mathematics, and the
social sciences.

It also incorporated these basic lessons to include basic science and technology,
engineering, mathematics, accountancy, business and management, humanities
and social sciences, and general academic courses such as technical-vocational-
livelihood, arts and design, and sports.

The two years of SHS consists of two parts: Track Subjects—covering the
development of skills for immediate employment or entrepreneurship, and Core
Subjects—to ensure college readiness of K-12 graduates. It also facilitates four
career tracks for students to choose from: Academic, Technical-Vocational-
Livelihood, Sports, and Art & Design.

The four different career tracks provide flexibility. Depending on the goals of the
student, as well as the community and industry requirements in a particular region,

Gracelda T. Pangantihon, PhDEL Student | PhDEL 606: Development Perspectives in Educational Administration | Dr. Cesar A. Adegue IV, Professor
 the Track Subject Curriculum enhances the value and relevance of the high school
diploma. Equally important, the Core Subject Curriculum,remaining invariable for
all schools,provides an opportunity for everyone to be equally well-prepared for a
college education academically.

By integrating the awarding of TESDA National Certificates at the high school level,
K-12 students—now of employable age upon graduation—would already qualify
for decent entry-level jobs. This also increases the financial capabilities of high
school graduates who desire to pursue advancement through higher education.

Moreover, the SHS curriculum also addresses the redundancy of college-level

general education programs, which presently cover material that should have
already been mastered at the pre-university level. This can result in higher
education institutions being more focused on the specifics of various degrees,
rather that consuming so much of the first two years remedying the inadequate
competencies of the old 10-year program.

Impact of K to 12 Transition

With the introduction of K-12, there will be an increase in student population,

translating into a requirement for 20,000 to 28,000 additional classrooms for each
additional year-level; 40,000 to 56,000 classrooms for the two years of SHS.
Another pressing issue is the retrenchment of teaching and non-teaching college
personnel. An estimated 25,000 are being held at bay.

DepEd, however, says that it has closed the gap of 66,800 classroom shortage in
2010 and has built 86,478 classrooms between 2010 to 2014. This year, an
additional 27,499 classrooms are on line to be constructed to cover the SHS
implementation in 2016.

DepEd has announced that it will be hiring 39,000 additional teachers in 2016 to
meet the personnel requirements of the program. This demand for SHS teachers
is proposed as mitigation for the faculty lay-offs in higher education institutions.
This is an important point, since many junior faculty look to their teaching careers
for funding to pursue higher academic degrees. Thus, the roughly 50 percent cut
in pay that comes from the move from college to SHS teaching is particularly bad
news.

But, besides student and teacher concerns, there is a third factor: the additional
cost to parents for food and transportation expenses to send their children for two
more years of high school.

Gracelda T. Pangantihon, PhDEL Student | PhDEL 606: Development Perspectives in Educational Administration | Dr. Cesar A. Adegue IV, Professor
 Chain Reaction
Changes to the education system are intended to better equip students for
employment and further study, both at home and abroad. However, one
consequence is the major and ongoing ripple effect they will have on colleges and
universities. In particular, the reforms will spark a precipitous decline in higher
education enrollments during the 2019/20 and 2020/21 school years, as the cohort
of students who would typically enroll show up on campus instead continue on in
senior high school. Despite the fact that numbers should recover the following
year, the prospect has created widespread concern among university faculty, who,
last year emerged as “leading voices of opposition,” said The New York Times.
“Many are concerned that moving classes for 17- and 18-year-olds from
universities to high schools will result in the firing of at least 25,000 university
employees,” the paper noted. (The government argues that this lower figure, not
the higher one cited in widely circulated petitions protesting the reforms, is correct.)

The move to add two years of advanced studies to high school has also forced
revisions to curricula at the tertiary level. Required credits for the entry-level
General Education curriculum, for instance, have been cut by almost half, from 64
to 36. The move has further amplified job-related concerns among faculty
responsible for teaching entry level courses. The Filipino Commission on Higher
Education, which is tasked with ensuring the quality of the tertiary sector aligns to
international standards, has moved to counter these concerns, putting in place
several programs aimed at helping faculty navigate the transition, while also
enhancing the overall quality of research and scholarship within HEIs. Such
programs include the creation of development grants available to both institutions
and individuals, and of a scholarship program that will provide affected faculty with
8,000 scholarships to study at the master’s degrees and another 7,000 at the
doctoral level.

Organizational Change

Organizational change is both the process in which an organization changes its

structure, strategies, operational methods, technologies, or organizational culture
to affect change within the organization and the effects of these changes on the
organization. Organizational change can be continuous or occur for distinct periods
of time.

Every organization goes through periods of transformation that can cause stress
and uncertainty. To be successful, organizations must embrace many types of
change. Businesses must develop improved production technologies, create new
products desired in the marketplace, implement new administrative systems, and
upgrade employees' skills. Organizations that adapt successfully are both
profitable and admired.

Gracelda T. Pangantihon, PhDEL Student | PhDEL 606: Development Perspectives in Educational Administration | Dr. Cesar A. Adegue IV, Professor
 Managers must contend with all factors that affect their organizations. The
following lists internal and external environmental factors that can encourage
organizational changes:

• The external environment is affected by political, social, technological,

and economic stimuli outside of the organization that cause changes.

• The internal environment is affected by the organization's management

policies and styles, systems, and procedures, as well as employee
attitudes.

Typically, the concept of organizational change is used to describe organization‐

wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person,
modifying a program, and so on. Examples of organization‐wide change might
include a change in mission, restructuring operations (for example, restructuring
to self‐managed teams or due to layoffs), new technologies, mergers, or new
programs such as Total Quality Management, re‐engineering, and so on.
Managers should note that all changes should be implemented as part of a
strategy to accomplish an overall goal; these transformations should not take place
just for the sake of change.

Gracelda T. Pangantihon, PhDEL Student | PhDEL 606: Development Perspectives in Educational Administration | Dr. Cesar A. Adegue IV, Professor