Over 800 schools to teach revised SHS curriculum - DepEd

Metro Manila, Philippines - More than 800 schools nationwide will join the pilot implementation of the revised senior high school curriculum, education officials said.

The Department of Education told a committee hearing at the House of Representatives on Monday, May 19, that 580 public schools and 261 private schools will carry out the revised SHS curriculum for school year 2025-2026,.

“Nag-increase [The number increased]...because we look at the moderately ready so that we can have several schools implementing the senior high school from the rural and urban areas so that we can address more issues as we do the pilot,” Education Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral said.

The DepEd initially looked at 727 selected schools for the pilot study based on the diversity of electives, sufficiency of teachers, and availability of facilities and learning resources.

The revised curriculum for Grades 11 and 12 has fewer core subjects, down to five from 15.

There will only be two tracks, namely, Academic and Technical Professional (previously called Technical-Vocational-Livelihood).

Electives will be grouped into “clusters” under the two tracks to do away with the “strands” in the previous curriculum. This would also let students choose electives across multiple clusters.

“We removed the strands so that there’s also seamless taking of subjects by the student depending on their aspirations and choice of exit,” Education Assistant Secretary Janir Datukan said.

DepEd urged to give higher certification for employability

SHS curriculum changes include having more work immersion hours.

Senior high school students will have 320 to 640 hours of work immersion, up from the previous 80 to 320 hours.

Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo raised as a concern that most of the Technical Professional electives offered a National Certificate (NC) II. Based on industry feedback, he said SHS graduates with NC II need more guidance and training, thus they still “can’t be left alone at work.”

“Lengthening the work immersion should produce a higher NC,” said Romulo, the House committee on basic education and culture chairperson. “Dalawang taon ninyo nilalagay ang estudyante sa DepEd school, should that not be sufficient to reach NC III or IV?”

[Translation: You subject the student for two years under the DepEd school, should that not be sufficient to reach NC III or IV?]

“Pag NC II lang ang binigay ninyo, unang una hindi ‘yan sa quality jobs. pangalawa, kahit sa community-based TESDA schools three to six months nakakabigay sila ng NC II,” he said.

[Translation: The NC II won’t assure quality jobs. Even in community-based TESDA schools, they can give an NC II for three to six months.]

Education officials pledged to the House committee a list of updated Technical Professional electives within the week.

The DepEd will begin teacher training for the pilot implementation on May 25.