Last Updated on December 15, 2020 by Andrew Pirie
K12 school
This article will discuss How the K12 school curriculum affects Athletics Philippines
- The implications of the DEPED introduced K12 School Program in the Philippines.
- Its effect on the sport and challenges face.
- I will also suggest ways to improve or counter the effects of the K TO 12. For this case study, I will use the sport of Track and Field. But this case study can also be applied to other sports.
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Firstly let’s outline what the K12 School Curriculum is?
General information on this topic can be found on the DepEd Website. An outline is as follows
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The K12 School Program covers 13 years of basic education with the following key stages:
- Kindergarten to Grade 3
- Grades
- 4 to 6
- 7 to 10 (Junior High School)
- 11 and 12 (Senior High School)
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So let’s look at the ages. While Elementary has been unaffected.
The big change is two extra years of senior high school must be completed before entering college in the Philippines.
Whether this applies to attending college overseas may vary on a case to case basis.
Usually, a student will start high school at age 13.
So by the time they finish 4 years of high school, they will be 16.
They will be 17 or 18 when they end high school and 19 when they start University. If the student said 14, they would start University Age 20.
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How This will affect the Palaro: Split into two age grades.
The maximum age for the Palaro was 17. However, the DEPED has now raised this age limit to 18.
This will allow most senior high school athletes to participate.
Yet this is good as it will allow a big improvement in Palarong Pambansa Records.
Palarong Pambansa Records lag behind New Zealand and Australian high school records.
As of 2015, in New Zealand, the 100m boy’s record is 10.60, while in Australia, it’s 10.44. In the Philippines, the Phi High school record is 11.04 (10.8 hands timed) in comparison.
These countries have much smaller populations than the Philippines.
While this now means that 13-year-old athletes will now be competing against 18-year-olds. There is a big difference physically in the limitations of the said ages in athletes for both girls and boys.
This also means athletes who happen to have started late and are still in senior high school who are 19 already will not be able to play in the Palaro, and they have no other meets except the PNG and National Open. As they are not yet in college.
The suggestion for the DEPED organizers of the Palaro is to do what New Zealand and Australia do, and that is to divide the 13,14,15,16,17,18,19, or 7 years of different age grades into two a 15 and below category and a 16 and above category.
In New Zealand Secondary Schools, the maximum age is 19.5, which caters to New Zealand’s 5-year high school system, with some students opting to do 6 years to further their University advancement later.
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UAAP and NCAA High School Grades
Also, there is no established competition for girls in High school in the NCAA as of yet.
The maximum age for these two boys categories is also 18, which means boys who enroll in Manila are also not eligible.
Updated UAAP now has a girls division as of 2018.
However, once the NCAA and UAAP are increased, and possibly also the Palaro to 19 and girls is also included.
It is expected a lot of athletes from the province will probably face an exodus to Manila.
Where they will have both a Palaro and UAAP Competition. Or at least a UAAP Competition to participate in as most provincial levels do not provide adequate meets for the athletes.
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Andrew was elected Vice President of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians in 2020 after being a member for 7 years.
He has worked as a PSC Consultant and Research Assistant from 2013-2015, Consultant, and Sprint Coach at Zamboanga Sports Academy from 2015-2017. And Currently is Consultant Coach with VMUF 2021-
Current editor and chief of Pinoyathletics.info, and has recently done consultancy work for Ayala Corp evaluating the Track and Field Program.
Coaches Sprints, Middle and Jump events he is Level 3 Athletics Australia Coaching Certification in Sprints and Hurdles.
Currently working towards a Masters Degree in Education.
He can be contacted on [email protected]
You can find more information on Coaching here
http://www.pinoyathletics.info/coaching-2/