Responding to Labor Migration through the Kto12 Curriculum Christian B. Dilao Guidance Associate, FEU High School christiandilao30@gmail.com Key words: labor migration, OFW, Human Capital, kto12 curriculum ABSTRACT International labor migration in the Philippines started to gain its popularity during Marcos’ regime due to severe economic depression and lack of opportunities brought about by Martial Law. Over the years, there have been a drastic increase in the number of Filipinos who work abroad. The enduring feature of Philippine development of sending Filipinos abroad led the Department of Education to develop a new curriculum that would equip graduates with an increase in the productivity of human capital in the global market. This study explored how the Philippine educational system shaped students’ orientation towards international labor migration and how it could be used to lessen the number of Filipinos who would want to become part of the diaspora community. An autoethnographic qualitative design was employed to gain an extensive and deeper cultural understanding of the phenomenon. Overall, results in this study indicated that people considered education as an investment and a rational thing to have to make oneself more employable. Participants believed that their education contributed to their current situation, but did not necessarily shape them towards labor migration. Instead, their propensity to migrate influenced their educational decisions. Interestingly, the core theme that resonated on how education can respond to the phenomenon is to develop and enhance a curriculum that focuses on civic education reorienting them of their duties and responsibilities as Filipinos. A new ideal citizen is also defined. Introduction Migration has always been part of human life. Historically, humans in the band level society moved from place to place in search of food. As societies continue to develop, people have abandoned nomadic lifestyles when their supplies have become more stable and moving has become an option. Today, countries are becoming more and more open to possible integration of other cultures. In fact, Europe is encouraging everyone to migrate in its land because their human capital is slowly dying. People move across borders due to several reasons. Often cited reason is to provide remittances to their families or to help a family member. In short, people mostly migrate to improve their circumstances (Devictor, 2016). In the Philippines, labor migration started to gain popularity during Marcos years. Because of severe economic depression, lack of job opportunities and political oppression – thousands of Filipinos desperately seeking better lives for themselves and their families took risks and bravely went to strange lands and cultures taking on whatever jobs were available (Laguatan, 2011). After three decades, working abroad has become a commonplace for Filipinos, weaving itself into the political and social fabric of their country. Of the total current population of 103.3 million, there are approximately 10 million Filipino migrants around the world in 170 countries, with 3 million in America alone, followed by Asia and Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa. While others consider migration a downside, it is increasingly helping the economy through remittances of OFWs and trade in goods and services. Due to the social status and prestige associated to people who have gone abroad, the number of people who aspire to work abroad drastically increased. As migrants increase, educational opportunities also increase. Education, in turn, has become one of the stepping stones to grab an opportunity outside the country. Being cognizant to the demands of the global community, the government has implemented a new curriculum that would equip learners to become globally competitive. At present, educational institutions produce graduates who are marketable to the demands of the global community because apart from the basic 3R’s (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic), the educational curriculum also has evolved and is now offering more. It incorporates career pathways specialized academic, technical-vocational and entrepreneurship tracks, which will lead to students being eligible for the Certificate of Competency that they may use to secure job opportunities. The new curriculum, even the older curriculum several years ago, opened its gate to the professionalization of vocational and technical courses including but not limited to caregiving, commercial cookery, household services, automotive servicing, carpentry, plumbing, masonry, welding, refrigeration and air condition servicing, and computer hardware servicing, while the entrepreneurship track includes ‘novelty and crafts’ which are in-demand in the global job market. Aside from career pathways, the Kto12 curriculum also targets the acquisition of twenty-first century skills, which include: (1) learning and innovation skills (creativity, curiosity, problem solving and adaptability); (2) information, media and technology skills (visual, media, scientific, economic and technological literacies); (3) effective communication skills (teamwork, collaboration and interpersonal, personal and interactive skills); (4) life and career skills (flexibility, initiative, self-direction, productivity and accountability); and (5) leadership and responsibility (SEAMEO INNOTECH, 2012, pp. 9-10). These skills are known as the soft skills – skills that do not require manual labor (hard skills) but necessary in the workplace. People who rank high in these areas are more likely to be considered by the employers. The Research Problem The continuous deployment of overseas migrant workers has made international migration an enduring feature of Philippine development. Whether part of a deliberate development strategy or simply tolerating citizens seeking work abroad because of the lack of jobs domestically, the country deploys a continuously rising number of migrant workers to 192 countries. Deployment has exceeded a million workers annually since 2005. Official remittance stood at over 9 percent of the gross domestic product in 2010, which is greater than the contribution of many of the traditional industries. Given this background, it is not surprising that international migration is a continuing national concern (Abrigo & Oreta, 2011). According to the data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who worked abroad at any time during the period April to September 2017 was estimated at 2.3 million. Note that this includes both those undocumented and documented cases. The highest percentage of the data belongs to the group of college graduate. More opportunities are being offered for those who have finished their education. As a response to the ever-growing demands on the global community, the government has improved and implemented a revised curriculum that aims at transforming individuals to be globally competitive. However, it received critics not only from the people in academe but students from different universities as well. They believe that education is being used as a tool for the powerful to produce human capital who will, later on, be exploited in the workplace. In March 2017, when senior high school students from the University of Sto. Tomas staged a silent protest inside their campus, higher authorities reprimanded them for criticizing that the government implemented curriculum is a product of capitalism but hides under the cloak of modernity. Students had placards with their battle cry “Nurses: For Export”, a simple phrase but mind awakening. Apart from nurses, they also mentioned various professionals who are trained in the country and later on will find themselves in strange lands in search of better opportunities. As I browse the literature, I found out that there are many conflicting pieces of evidence and no strong agreement on the role that education plays in migration. One of the reasons for this is that people’s motivations change over time and as they travel (Hagen-Zanker & Mallett, 2016). The literature suggests that education is not often a primary driver of migration, either as a push or pull factor, except in the cases of young people going to universities abroad, and sometimes to get into better, more distant, schools than their local ones (Browne, 2017). According to Laguatan (2011), education in the early times did not directly link schooling to migration as there were no welding, domestic work, etc. short courses offering. Out of curiosity, I had rechecked the career plan made by my students in Personal Development. More than half of them envision themselves working abroad. This has left me wondering, if education is not a major player in migration, then why is it that with the current curriculum, going abroad has become every student’s aspiration and as an educator how can I make use of the current curriculum to lessen the number of Filipinos who instead of committing themselves to serve the country opt to look for greener pasture across borders. The Research Question: This paper sets out to explore how the Philippine educational system shapes students’ orientation towards international labor migration and how it will be used to lessen the number of Filipinos who have wanted to become part of the diaspora community. While the paper is ambitious it is not a truly comprehensive treatment, so that issues such as migration policies, economic repercussions of Filipino international labor migration, informal skilling and short courses, human resource management, refugee issues and some others are not covered. These latter are each important but the position taken here is that how formal education plays a role in the students’ propensity to migrate. The findings will let people in the academe revisit the current educational curriculum and instructions to encourage human resource in building national capability and in performing well in the liberalised environment created by the economic reform of recent decades. Review of Relevant Literature Labour migration may begin for a variety of reasons. Although the truism holds that economic forces often play an important role as one of the root causes of migration, and people tend to move to places where the standards of living are better, this alone cannot explain the actual shape of migration patterns (Salt 1987:243; Schoorl 1998). Education is yet another reason which oftentimes a left-behind in the social reality and is universally recognized as one of the drivers of migration as it creates openness to, as well as opportunities for, employment abroad. Economic prospects and education are closely related and hard to disentangle. People giving education as a reason to migrate usually associate this with the prospect of eventually getting a decent job. Children’s education is often considered a family investment for the future (Bakewell & Bonfiglio, 2013). Thus when people cite economic reasons for migrating or deciding on a particular place, this may also implicitly include educational services for children, who will then be able to get a better job in the future (Brown, 2017). The typical aspiring migrant has an intermediary level of education: people with the lowest levels of education (no education) and people with the highest levels of education (master’s degree level) were the least likely to express the wish to migrate or to have thought about migrating. Students, not the unemployed, displayed the greatest propensity to migrate: 41 per cent of non-migrants who were students reported that they have thought about leaving, against 27 per cent of unemployed non-migrants (Consulting, 2016). On the other hand, there is worldwide evidence that the more educated, the higher probability of migrating. Banerjee & Verma (2009) state that highly educated migrants are more likely to go abroad for work, because more legal options are open to them, but they are also very likely to enrol in further education once abroad, partly because their qualifications are not recognised, and partly because the opportunity cost of university is lower for them than for lower educated migrants. It is not possible to directly link schooling to the earlier Filipino diaspora, as most Filipinos (before and at the onset of the migration) undertook schooling for some other purposes – that is, mostly for traditional and familial reasons, and not necessarily for overseas work. For one, it could be surmised that the dominant view of schooling and education was that it enabled one to get a job and be the person one wanted to be, irrespective of what one’s parents wished for in the context of the growing Filipino nation. Under the influence of the USA, education became instilled in the Filipino consciousness as an opportunity for upward social mobility, since earning a diploma was perceived to ensure a good job and acceptance in society, with a chance for a better future (StateUniversity.com, 2013). In rural areas, it was not uncommon to see someone make a choice to be either a teacher or an office worker in the local government. In a sense, schooling was a totally distant world from migration (Delos Reyes, 2013). Migration is an individual decision made at the household level, taking into account individual/family benefits and costs. In general, individuals face a choice between staying in their own country or migrating overseas. To maximize their utility, they decide to migrate if the benefits from migration exceed the costs. The benefits are both economic (e.g., higher incomes and better living standards) and noneconomic (e.g., stable jobs, job satisfaction, or career prospects). The costs are also monetary (involving, for example, the cost of transaction, transportation, and forgone income) as well as nonmonetary (e.g., the psychic costs of moving to a foreign (country or leaving family behind). In some cases, migration can be for political reasons as well. (The Road ot Travelled, Chapter 5). The Human Capital theory views education as an investment and it explains how education affects labor migration in micro level. Zanker (2008) cited that: The human capital approach is a neoclassical micro-level migration theory. Based on the work of Sjaastad (1962) migration is treated as an individual investment decision to increase the productivity of human capital, thus again focusing on the labor market, but at the same time explaining the selectivity of heterogeneous migrants. Individuals make a rational cost-benefit calculation of the expected discounted returns of migration over future time periods, migrating only when the expected returns are positive. For most people, educational outcomes are considered to be the result of choices that involve the costs and benefits of the alternative. In calculating the costs of human capital, it is important to recognize not only direct costs, such as books or tuition fees in acquiring university education but also the opportunity cost or income foregone while people acquire the human capital (Benjamin, 20002). For an instance, a student who is enrolled in a university might need to finance his tuition, projects, and other fees for a number of years to be conferred as a degree holder. In addition, the student’s stay in the university helps the students improve the skills deemed necessary to the chosen field to get a higher chance of being hired by employers. Contextualizing this in the Philippines, families often send their children to prominent universities thinking that it could create more opportunities to their children in the development of key skills that are helpful in taking part to the globalization. Families sometimes do not mind the costs they will have to spend in exchange for quality education which is perceived to ensure a higher probability of acceptance in the society and securing a job position that is well-compensated. Unfortunately, jobs with a high paying salary scale can be found overseas. Methodology To answer the research question, an autoethnography qualitative design is employed. I engage in extensive self-examination and self-reflection, and purposively think about and include extensive cultural and contextual description about education and labor migration phenomena. The paper is based on primary and secondary sources of data and information. Primary data was done through an in-depth interview with participants who are completers of the Kto12 curriculum, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and some educators. They were asked how education influences their orientation towards moving outside the country. Secondary sources include reviews on a number of papers, reports, dissertations and books in preparing the paper. Internet search was also made to consult necessary information on educational system’s influences on migration. Movie review, checking of school essays and projects are also sources of data in which the phenomena being studied is thoroughly analyzed. Results and Discussions All participants believe that education plays a vital role in contributing to the productivity of an individual in the growing global community. Investing in education is a rational thing to do regardless how much would it cost them to earn a degree so long as they get the desirable benefits which would make them more employability and chance to a better future. Participant A states her plan of taking International Studies and working abroad due to the nature of work she wishes to pursue. She dreams of becoming an ambassadress to promote a healthy relation between countries through dialogues. Her decision is mainly influenced by her desire and passion for enjoying life and facing more challenging opportunities that would help her grow as an individual. Participant B dreams of working either in media or academe. He plans to go abroad but is not due to the influence of education. When asked of his reason behind his plan, he mentioned a lot of push and pull factors that led him the desire to migrate. First, he went through the process of introspection to find in what areas he excels and he used it in determining his career plan. Second, more opportunities that are well compensated are available abroad. It might help someone who is need of augmenting family income. Participant C believes in the importance of education. Since grade six he has been dreaming of becoming an educator. Who is he now is a product of how his teachers have shaped him. Having the notion that the country has served him through an access to quality education, he wants to give back the service given to him by serving the Philippines. It is through education that he was able to realize how unfortunate the society’s situation was. The number of teachers is not proportional to the number of people who need education. He identifies labor migration as the major reason. The aforementioned plans are considered to be the cost and benefits of their rational choice. It would cost them tuition and other miscellaneous fees in exchange of skills acquisition which can be used in the future exposing themselves to more opportunities in the ever-growing global community. Overseas Filipino workers and educators who were interviewed face-to-face, through chats and videocall have a consensus view on education and labor migration. Their educational attainment contributed to the work they have. They all believe that educated individuals find it easier to access overseas labor markets because they have “saleable” skills; they have better access to information; and they are better in adapting to a new environment. Competencies as Geared Towards Migration - Benefits Participants unanimously agree that the acquisition of skills through the Kto12 curriculum is helpful both within and outside the country. The Kto12 curriculum had improved the educational system to produce satisfying ready and proactive individuals that would apply their knowledge and skills in the Philippines making the country at par with the globally accepted standards. The current educational system does not only transform Filipinos to become globally competitive but it creates a solution to the discrimination as experienced by Filipinos who have less number of basic education. Through the Kto12 curriculum, Filipinos are now more equipped and ready to satisfy the demands of the global community but being globally competitive is far from labor migration. Moreover, Technical and vocational education such as the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) provides alternative solutions to the less privilege who instead of pursuing a four-year degree in a university may avail of the free training provided by the institution that would help them develop their manual labor skills. These skills may be in-demand abroad but the role of skills acquisition is only to prepare the students for them to be able to perform well in their chosen career but not explicitly shape their orientation towards migration. However, a high school Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) teacher believes that the competencies are designed to promote labor migration. Education and the Propensity to Migrate There are many factors that drive people to consider labor migration. While education has little to no significant influence on the orientation and decision of the students’ propensity in labor migration, there may be pieces of evidence that it becomes the reason why people choose to be part of the diaspora community. Participant A and B postulate that due to the skills acquired by the graduates, they have more chances of getting the benefits they want. It causes students consider to work abroad since they have become more equipped for a job overseas and that they can earn as twice as what they are earning here. The higher educational attainment you have finished, the more opportunities will knock at your door. Furthermore, participant B added that it is through education that an individual is able to realize the real situation of the country. Thus, people who are enlightened take migration as an alternative solution to the perennial problem in corruption and lack of opportunities in the country. Participant A, B, and C including the OFWs who were interviewed agree that teachers can also affect the views of students in the propensity to migrate. Teachers’ influence works in subtle ways: different kinds of socio-emotional behaviour, the amount and kind of stories students receive, the extent to which students are provided with comparison about the government, laws and policies, and the opportunities presented to students to participate in class. An OFW observes that the concepts being taught in schools especially the kind of work where the students will land promote urbanization and unconsciously destroy the passion of the youth to livelihood programs that working in a farm is no better than working in an airconditioned office. Dapat hindi ganun tinuturo sa school ‘diba na gusto natin pa-sosyal. Marami tayong agricultural land, bakit hindi gamitin? Kasi ayaw natin marumi kamay natin, which is dapat ganun naman talaga (School should not teach these things. We all want to be perceived as cozy, right? We have a vast of agricultural land, why not maximize it? We wouldn’t opt to for the reason of not making our hands filthy).Very often these processes happen unconsciously. The result, they think living and working abroad is indeed better. While schooling subtly promotes looking for greener pasture abroad, it still depends on the students themselves where they want to utilize it, whether abroad or not. Bilang isang guro, hindi ko masasagot kung bakit gusto nila mangibang bansa (As an educator, I cannot respond to that answer for I can’t blame them for going out of the country). Labor migration is a manifestation of poverty which is the real problem. Conclusion Education does not influence students towards migration but rather their propensity to migrate influences their educational decisions. Filipinos see education as something to venture on in acquiring the necessary qualifications in their propensity to migrate. The cost of training doesn’t matter so long as they finish a degree because a diploma is perceived to ensure a good job and acceptance in society, with a chance for a better future and forgone earnings, will be compensated by higher income. It is clearly seen that education is concerned only in providing students the skills needed in the workplace not sending them abroad. Its implementation may be able to produce globally competitive individuals but not necessarily citizens who are willing to serve the country. With the so-called minimum competency, the graduates have gained much confidence that they can compete and work outside the country. Hence, the creativity and innovation that the country should receive are offered and given to other countries. It’s not the curriculum that influences much the people to migrate to other countries for jobs. It is the pay that they will get which the local job market cannot provide makes them go out. Government policies and laws on just compensation do not favour the graduates and human resources to work domestically. Our curriculum has been very good in preparing our human resources for work. The irony of all these is that our government has been spending much on scholarships that give opportunities to deserving youth to earn high quality education. Yet, they are allowed to go out and work abroad. Looking at the economic perspective, there would be no problem with this but digging deeper the economic implications, it perpetuates brain drain. Teachers sometimes contribute to this by not being aware that through their discussions they impose worldviews on labor migration. Recommendation (How Can Education Respond to Labor Migration?) The problem with our education is we are so obsessed with standards that we tend to forget that authentic learning cannot be seen through exam scores on theoretical considerations but rather on the basis of dealing with things sensibly and realistically. The Kto12 curriculum is a jumpstart recognition of learning through practical considerations. Before, students were only taught concepts which students hardly grasp but now the new curriculum has paved the way for outcomes-based education which gives more importance to Performance tasks rather than written exams. An enhanced and revised curriculum that focuses on civic education with basic entrepreneurial skills will be helpful on both the individual and the economy. It may be difficult to reorient people on their idea of success but it is feasible if all sectors will work together. For those who are not in schools, livelihood programs may also be helpful which teach them how to earn money without spending a decent amount of money and needing to go outside the country. Let us help them shift the paradigm that employability is the only thing that they can do. In addition, the government should stop converting agricultural land into commercial establishments to maximize the agricultural services which once the country was known for. It may sound impossible but the state must orient the citizens on their duties and responsibilities as Filipinos. Those who have graduated scholars or products of state universities and colleges (SUCs) should not be allowed to work abroad for a period of time and render their service to the country as what the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) scholarship is doing especially the incoming school year is a milestone in which SUCs withstanding free tuition battle has been granted. Each Filipino has a different path. In choosing a career, students consider a career that is highly compensated and in-demand in the global community. It still depends on the student themselves if he/she wants to go abroad or not. The new ideal citizens may not necessarily reside in the Philippines in the future, but as long as he or she, makes significant contribution to the development of the nation by engaging in work and productive spheres and makes the nation proud and is also proud of his or her heritage, this person will remain a Filipino. REFERENCES: Abrigo, M. & Orbeta, C. (2011). Managing international labor migration: the philippine experience. Philippine Journal of Development, number 70, First and Second Semesters 2011, Volume XXXVIII, Numbers 1 & 2 Altai Consulting (2016). IOM Somalia. http://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/country/docs/IOM-Youth-Employment-Migration-9Feb2016.pdf Bakewell, O., & Bonfiglio, A. (2013). Working paper. African Great Lakes Mobility Project Banerjee, R., & Verma, A. (2009). 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