SINABI ng Department of Education (DepEd)  na layon nito na tugunan ang isyu ukol sa  employability o kakayahang magtrabaho ng  K-12 graduates sa pamamagitan ng  MATATAG education agenda nito.

Ang pahayag na ito ni DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa ay tugon sa kamakailan lamang na ipinalabas na ulat ng Commission on Human Rights (CHR)  na nagpapakita na ang mga senior high school (SHS) graduates sa bansa ay “lack soft skills and job readiness” at pawang “highly vulnerable” sa scams.

Sinabi pa ng CHR  na ang kakayahan ng mga guro ay hindi naka-align  sa SHS program dahilan kaya’t ang  DepEd “cannot provide as many teachers to complete all the subject areas because of the number of enrollments in one area of the school.”

Para naman sa DepEd, sinabi ni Poa na kinikilala ng departamento ang nasabing isyu sa Basic Education Report na ipinresenta ni Vice President at Education Secretary Sara Duterte noong Enero.

“Steps to address such issues are already in the MATATAG Agenda, such as engaging with CHED, TESDA, and various industry partners to address the issue of skills mismatch in our SHS Program. This forms part of the on-going review of the SHS Curriculum, which shall consider feedback from employers and studies on SHS employability,” ani Poa.

Nauna nang inanunsyo ni Duterte na nakatakdang baguhin ng DepEd ang K to 12 curriculum sa layuning makapag-produce ng mas maraming  “job-ready at responsable graduates.”

“The ongoing review of the K-12 curriculum revealed that its content was congested; that some prerequisites of identified essential learning competencies were missing or misplaced; and that a significant number of learning competencies catered to high cognitive demands,” ayon sa DepEd.

Samantala, sa isyu naman ng teacher quality, sinabi ni Poa na ang capacity building para sa mga ito ay prayoridad ng departamento.

“[This] will address the following: quality of entry-level teachers; unfilled teaching and teaching-related positions; ancillary tasks assigned to teachers; unequal distribution of qualified teachers; teachers not teaching their SHS specialization; and poor skills in analysis, synthesis, and evaluation which are crucial and relevant to the emerging economy,” dagdag na pahayag ni Poa. (Daris Jose)