A progressive youth group on Thursday, Oct. 20, underscored anew the urgent need to include labor rights as a mandatory subject in the Senior High School (SHS) curriculum regardless of the strand.
“As the promise of employment remains attractive to our youth, it is their lack of knowledge of labor standards and labor rights that will put them in danger, especially as employers’ abusive practices have remained unchecked,” Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) national chairperson John Lazaro said.
Since 2018, SPARK has been lobbying for the inclusion of labor rights as a mandatory subject in the curriculum for Grades 11 and 12 regardless of the strand.
SPARK made renewed its call after Vice President and Department of Education (DepED) Secretary Sara Duterte pleaded with businessmen to hire SHS graduates.
At the 48th Business Conference of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Oct. 19, Duterte note that the country suffers from a “diploma mentality” where college graduates edge out senior high graduates in terms of employability.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/10/19/vp-duterte-urges-businessmens-hire-k-12-graduates/
For SPARK, Duterte’s appeal was “reckless and opportunistic” because the vulnerable sectors such as the SHS graduates may be taken advantage of once they enter the workforce.
SPARK noted that it is not enough that K to 12 graduates are equipped with the necessary skill set to be globally competitive in the present cutthroat job market but also “armed with sufficient knowledge of their rights and benefits, and procedures in various state agencies they have to engage with.”
Related to this, SPARK is s also calling on lawmakers to amend the recently passed and “watered down” Republic Act 1151 or the Labor Education Act authored by Senator Joel Villanueva to include the mandatory teaching of labor rights in senior high schools instead of an elective subject in higher education institutions (HEIs).
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https://mb.com.ph/2022/10/19/duterte-deped-in-talks-with-other-agencies-to-produce-job-ready-shs-graduates/