MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Philippine Congress seems bent on overhauling the country’s education system to make Filipinos more competitive in the international academic and professional arena.

Just days after Representative and former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo proposed a new K+10 +2, Senator Robin Padilla filed his own bill in the Upper Chamber.

Padilla’s bill proposes to replace the existing K to 12, with K to 16. He says there is nothing new about his proposal. It just makes clearer the number of years Filipinos spend in school from their Kindergarten years till graduation from the university.

K to 16 is inclusive of Kindergarten, 6 years in elementary, 4 years in junior high, 2 years in senior high and 4 years in college. Padilla said the K to 12 program has been discriminatory of college students because it left them out of the equation.