LORD’S ANGELS MONTESSORI SCHOOL, INC.

Junior High School Department

Background
The Philippine Educational System is one of the shortest formal
education in the world with only 14 years of education which consists of a
structure of 6 years in the primary education, 4 years of secondary education,
and another 4 years for higher education resulting to The Philippines being one
of the three countries remaining in the world, along with Djibouti and Angola in
Africa, and the only remaining country in Asia with a 10-year pre-university
program.1 With this short amount of time to prepare oneself for an
employment, Filipinos are falling behind for being competitive with other
countries that has 12 years of basic education. Some resort to be unemployed
and just set up a business and some had to enter into contracts illegally.

With this evident problem in our basic education, the Department of

Education started to implement the new K-12 Curriculum and is now being
implemented to all schools nationwide. This major reform in the curriculum
includes enhancing the basic education structure for students to master basic
competencies and expanding the period of basic education to cover
kindergarten through year 12. By adding kindergarten and adding 2 years in
high school, K-12 curriculum ensures that the new graduates will have the
necessary skills for employment and them being of legal age before setting foot
into the real world (world of work), if they desired to do so. They also have the
option to continue going to college having better preparation for their tertiary
education study.

The major reform of K-12 curriculum will change the 4-year secondary
curriculum to Junior High School and will add 2 years in secondary education
that will be known as Senior High School (SHS). Moreover, the secondary
education curriculum itself will face some changes with all its core subjects
(Science, Mathematics, Araling Panlipunan, MAPEH and Edukasyon sa
Pagkakatao) will be taught using the spiral approach wherein students will see
the same topics throughout their school career but with increasing complexity
with each encounter compared to their previous learning.2 K-12 curriculum on
the other hand will have its Career Pathways, more known as Tracks. It gives the
students more opportunities to explore and specialize in Academic, Technical-
Vocational-Livelihood, Sports and Arts fields. Their chosen career track will
determine what subjects they will take in Senior High School preparation for
their chosen career.
 LORD’S ANGELS MONTESSORI SCHOOL, INC.
Junior High School Department

The tracks aforementioned are as follows3:

1.Academic,which is further subdivided into three strands:

a. Accountancy, Business and Management (ABM)
b. Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS)
c. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics(STEM)

2.Technical-vocational,which is further subdivided into four strands:

a. Agriculture-Fisheries
b. Home Economics
c. Industrial Arts
d. Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
3. Sports
4.Arts and Design

The career specifications offered by the new K-12 curriculum serves as a

stepping stone for students to plan ahead of time of what their chosen career
may be, and to cat upon it. Before leaving Junior High School to set foot to
Senior High School, they will be at a phase wherein they would choose what
specialization to take up. Thus, it is important to determine the factors as to
why they chose their Tracks and Strands.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/30207-infographic-ten-things-k12
https://www.gov.ph/k-12
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/k-12/

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the related literature and studies after the
thorough and in-depth search done by the researchers. This will also present the
synthesis of the art, theoretical and conceptual framework to fully understand
the research to be done and lastly the definition of terms for better
comprehension of the study.
Related Literature
There are many factors that affects students Senior Highschool track
preferences, according to a recent study conducted by Grade 9 Students of
Don Bosco Technology Center, Inc. in 2015 . The factors that affects students
 LORD’S ANGELS MONTESSORI SCHOOL, INC.
Junior High School Department

preferences on Senior Highschool Track were Personality, Family/Relatives,

Interest, and Job Oppurtunities.

Personality
There were some significant factors that can influence the career path of
a student. Most studies shows that understanding the personality the
individual’s traits.
An article posted by Adecco UK (Adecco UK, 2015), a part of a Swiss
multinational human resource consulting company of the same name, states
that it is worth finding out what type of worker an individual is with the
increasing of employers utilizing personality and psychometric testing
procedures to analyze the employee’s attributes beyond qualifications. It is also
stated in the article that “choosing a job to which an individual is inherently
suited –rather than just able to convince the interviewer that he/she is
interested in the position – will make him/her a happier, more productive
employee.”
There are many methods in knowing personality type and the most
common is the RIASEC model of the psychologist John L. Holland (Holland,
1973), that is developed from his own theory that postulates people project self-
and world-of-work views onto occupational titles.

Family/Relatives
Many children grow up idealizing the professions of their parents.
Many children looked up to their parents and admired their skills. Still other
parents put on pressure to their children. Many Filipinos do take upon the
parents’ or relatives’ suggestion on what they should specialize when they grow
up. Sometimes they suggest careers that wouldn’t cost that much, and at the
same time, are stable sources of income.
In an online blog article by Angerman, family background is one of the
major factors to examine for those who seek career guidance. When talking
about “family background” issues, the extent of influence of the parents and the
extended family has on the person is at focus – both at positive and negative
ways. This includes the place where he grew up, the economic realities facing
the family, illness, the countries of origin, among others (Angerman, 2009).
 LORD’S ANGELS MONTESSORI SCHOOL, INC.
Junior High School Department

Interests
Career interest reflected stable preferences for certain work. Aligning
one’s work environment with his or her work interest can increase his/her
satisfaction at work, it can also enhance his/her potential in achieving success at
work
Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) is grounded in Bandura’s (1986)
social cognitive theory, and explores how career and academic interests mature,
how career choices are developed, and how these choices are turned into action.
This is achieved through a focus of three primary tenets: self- efficacy (beliefs
people have about their ability to successfully complete the steps required for a
give task), outcome expectations (beliefs related to the consequences of
performing a specific behavior), and goals (decisions to begin a particular
activity or future plan)

Job Opportunities
Nowadays there where no jobs available for people so many people
where struggling on what career they will pursue because first they will have to
know if there were enough opportunities for that track.
For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2006) predicted that
between 2004 and 2014, jobs requiring only a high school diploma will increase
by 10% and will account for almost half of all new jobs created during that
period. With sufficient and viable employment options, youths living in areas of
the country where these job opportunities are plentiful may not have the same
incentive to pursue college, particularly if they lack the economic resources to
do so.