Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 12) — Senators have expressed alarm over a study conducted by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), which states that fresh graduates “tend to lack soft skills” and “lack job readiness.”
Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel on Wednesday called on the government to “invest in human capacity,” especially on the youth, as life becomes more difficult.
“I am alarmed with a lot of things happening in our country,” Pimentel said. “We have to invest in human capacity especially while our people are still young and equip them with skills which will be useful and practical in life.”
Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe called on the government to review the K-to-12 curriculum “to determine the enhancements needed to make it more responsive and relevant to the needs of our students.”
“We hope concerned government agencies in charge of the review will make this a priority, which can also be useful to the joint congressional oversight committee on the K-to-12 program in its own assessment,” Poe said
According to the CHR study, some schools offer limited Senior High School academic tracks, which force some students to take whatever track is available to them, and not their preferred choice.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier gave the Department of Education (DepEd) one year to review the K-to-12 program, DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa told CNN Philippines’ The Source
“We are trying to decongest our curriculum,” Poa said. “We want to really look at literacy in a way that we’ll be able to inculcate not just foundational literacy and also functional literacy.”
READ: DepEd given one year to complete K-to-12 review
Senator Sonny Angara stressed that the students’ lack of soft skills was already a concern of the educational system even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s one of the concerns our educational system needs to address going forward, alongside poor reading comprehension, among others,” Angara said.
However, Senator Francis Tolentino contested the results of the study, saying students are competitive as they have acquired other soft skills as well as hard skills even with the online class setup.
These skills include time management, perceptiveness, listening and self-discipline, Tolentino said.
“Perhaps some interpersonal skills were not nurtured, but just the same, coupled with the hard skills they learned, our graduates are competitive,” Tolentino said.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, schools switched to remote and hybrid learning setup in order to continue the education of students.
The non-commissioned study was conducted through a series of virtual consultations in Zoom. It was published in “Human Rights Situation Report: School-To-Work Transition 2022.”
