Senator Sherwin Gatchalian cautioned against scrapping the K-12 program entirely, saying doing so could trigger higher youth unemployment and long-term setbacks for students.
Speaking on Saturday, June 7, Gatchalian acknowledged that parents have grown increasingly frustrated with the additional two years of senior high school (SHS), but argued that eliminating it would do more harm than good.
“If we think about it, if we remove it, then at 16 years old, the students have already graduated and will then search for jobs,” he explained. “But since they are only 16, they would only get jobs that don’t pay well. I fear that because they have jobs already, maybe they won’t go to college anymore.”
Rather than abolish SHS, Gatchalian proposed a different approach—cutting down college education to two or three years. He noted that many general education subjects in college are already covered in SHS, making some college content redundant.
“We can make college three years or shorter,” he said, adding that while such reforms could be done even without a new law, his team is already working on a legislative proposal to institutionalize the change. “We are drafting a law now to make college two to three years. This means students can focus on their courses or concentration,” he said.
Gatchalian’s statement came in response to Senate Bill 3001 filed by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, which seeks to remove the SHS level, claiming it failed to fulfill its intended outcomes.
