A lot of people are now raising a howl against the failures of the K-12 program. It now appears it was just an added expense or a lot of money thrown down the drain by, both to citizens and the government.
It is now considered a failure. Firstly, it did not improve the academic competence of students. And more importantly, it did not make high school graduates employable.
The employability issue was a big one. That promise made people happy, especially parents. They thought that after all the financial burden in sending their kids to senior high they could find some employment and earn enough to finance their going to college.
But it was not to be. Senior high graduates don’t know enough to benefit would be employers. They can’t keep commercial books or even compose simple letters to free their bosses from doing these which take a lot of time. They are also ignorant on basic computer programs that needed everyday in homes, offices and other workplaces. They don’t even know how to tighten or loosen the nut of a bolt so they cannot be made to do simple maintenance procedures on cars or appliances. They cannot hammer a nail or do simple carpentry work, much less simple household electrical work. They are reluctant to do agricultural work or even just to learn the basics of organic farming and other lucrative agri-ventures. So what are they good for?
Had the kills required for these been taught to senior high students, they would have learned a lot to qualify them for innumerable jobs that are now available everywhere.
The reason is there are only a few teachers qualified to teach these. Our educational institutions were not ready. To hide this deficiency, the concepts of the k-12 program were couched or based on high falluting theoretical concepts or mere generalities. Not on well thought out simple but practical matters.**