CHAPTER I The Problem and its Background SPRCNHS in Changing Times: The Transion of School Sengs from Builders to Millennials INTRODUCTION Educaon in the Philippines is managed and regulated by the Department of Educaon (DepEd), Commission on Higher Educaon (CHED) and Technical Educaon and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). DepEd is responsible for the K–12 basic educaon; it exercises full and exclusive control over public schools and nominal regulaon over private schools, and it also enforces the naonal curriculum that has been put in place since 2013. CHED and TESDA, on the other hand, are responsible for higher educaon; CHED regulates the academically-oriented universies and colleges while TESDA oversees the development of technical and vocaonal educaon instuons and programs in the country. From 1945 to 2011, basic educaon took ten years to complete—six years of elementary educaon and four years of high school educaon for children aged six up to fiſteen. However, aſter the implementaon of the K–12 Program of DepEd and subsequent raficaon of Kindergarten Educaon Act of 2012 and Enhanced Basic Educaon Act of 2013, the basic educaon today takes thirteen years to complete—one year of kindergarten, six years of elementary educaon, four years of junior high school and two years of senior high school for children aged five up to seventeen. As of 2017, the implementaon of Grade 12 has started. Restructuring the Philippines’s basic educaonal system through the K to 12 Program is a tough but strategic move by the government to ensure that it produces competent graduates who can serve as the backbone for a highly skilled