The Status of K to 12 Basic Education Program in the Philippines: A Reference for Teachers' Twenty-First Century Skills Development Plan

The Department of Education, with its major aim to enhance the quality of basic education and make the country at par with other countries, has paved the way to the K to 12 Basic Education Program. In its initial phase of implementation, this paper seeks to assess the extent of implementation on curriculum and instruction; standards and assessment; learning environment; governance, operations, and administration; human resource management and development; and finance. As frontlines of the academe, school heads and teachers assessed these aspects. Findings reveal that the K to 12 Program is implemented to a high extent as assessed by school heads and teachers. In terms of schools' performance, enrolment rate had an increasing trend. Achievement, repetition and drop-out rates vary for the past three years. School heads' evaluation of teachers' performance based from CB-PAST is very satisfactory. Learners were assessed as fairly competent in learning and literacy while competent in life skills. These form the bases for the Proposed Skills Development Plan. It is also urgent to enhance the quality management systems and curriculum implementation to uplift the quality of basic education in the country.