By GERALD LEIGH LAQUINON and LITO RULONA Correspondents MILITANT youth and urban poor groups in northern Mindanao greet the opening of classes this week with a protest action at Magsaysay Park against the implementation of  the K to 12 program saying it disenfranchised millions of students nationwide. Anakbayan-Northern Mindanao said that with the additional two years in senior high school, only 1.5 million have enrolled in Grade 11 out of the estimated 2.4 million students. Jade Mark Etucas, regional chair of Anakbayan, said this figure only shows the “deviousness” of the government’s propaganda that K to 12 is the solution to the deteriorating system of education, adding that it “only worsened the commercial and colonial character” of the educational system. Etucas said the educational system is commercialized since it has not been accessible to the youth, and that they and their parents are instead made to shoulder the responsibility of the state to provide a budget for education. “In fact, a student will pay at least P40,000 for a school year or P100,000 for the entire duration of the senior high,” Etucas said. According to him, about 417 schools in the region have opened the senior high school, 112 of which are private and 305 are public. The statement of Anakbayan decried the “colonial character” of the K to 12 since it does not answer the interest of the people as most of the schools offering SHS only tender technical-vocational courses to produce “skilled-workers whose labor-force are only exploited abroad.” “It will only promote the ‘labor export policy’ of the state to answer the demands of the US for a cheap labor force,” part of the statement reads. Meanwhile, Francisco Pagayaman, secretary general of Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), said most of their members in the urban poor sector find the program even burdensome as they don’t have stable income to send their children for additional school years. “Maglisod na man gani mi pa-eskwela sa among mga anak nga wala pay K to 12, labi na kaha karon,” said Pagayaman, asserting that the program would not address the quality of education and the eventual generation job opportunities. “Ang kaubos sa budget sa edukasyon ug grabeng pagpasagad niini mao ang problema, usa pa, hangtud walay batakang industrya sa nasud, wala gyud mahimong dugang trabaho para sa mga mo-graduate,” said Pagayaman. Etucas said the government should allot enough budget on education to solve the problem on the lack of classrooms, chairs, books, and other facilities; that adding years would only worsen problem since the government is clearly unprepared. The protest action was a nationwide mobilization of students and parents to call on the government, especially the incoming administration of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, to review and scrap the K to 12 program. College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) vice president for Mindanao Rochamae Bihag said education officials were in a state of denial over the recurring problems in the educational system. “The problem is getting worst especially when they opened the senior high school under the K-12 program of the government. Naghatag lamang sila og dugang kalisod sa mga estudyante og mga ginikanan,” she said. At Magsaysay Park, CEGP together with students, parents, and teachers demanded for the immediate scrapping of the K-12 program. Bihag reiterated that the K-12 would only worsen the dropout rate in the country due to the incapacity of students to enter private senior high schools where tuition range from P25,000 to P100,000 per school year. She said the next administration would have to carry the “burden of implementing this problematic policy, but ultimately, it is the Filipino youth who will suffer in the long run.” She said the K-12 program was implemented to answer the call in addressing manpower needs to other countries. “Gituyo kini nila aron matubag ang labor export policy sa uban nasud. We will resort to more protest actions in the coming days,” she said.