Full revised SHS program in SY 2027-2028 - DepEd

Metro Manila, Philippines - The full rollout of the revised senior high school (SHS) curriculum may be carried out by the school year 2027 to 2028 - with the pilot run spanning two years, an education official said.

In an interview with NewsWatch Plus, Carmela Oracion, education assistant secretary, said the agency aims to finish the two-year scale of SHS before it is carried out nationwide.

The new curriculum will be under pilot implementation in over 800 schools beginning SY 2025-2026, which opens on June 16.

“That's because we want to give attention to all that we will learn, all that we will discover from the pilot run and the evaluation of the different aspects of this,” said Oracion.

Under the revised program, core subjects were cut by two-thirds from 15 to five. The general subjects will be Effective Communication, Life and Career skills, General Mathematics, General Science, and Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino.

Only two tracks will be offered from the current four options, namely, Academic and Technical Professional.

Senior high school strands were also scrapped and will instead be part of elective clusters. Students may take electives of their own choice and may even pick up to two subjects outside their chosen tack.

“We didn't want to compartmentalize the different strands and in the same token also compartmentalize the students and define them as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for example and therefore they will have to take these subjects and therefore in college they must pursue STEM-related courses,” Oracion said.

Work immersion

Meanwhile, the education official said the new program will also allow schools to offer work immersion subjects as early as Grade 11, depending on the school's capacity and schedule.

The current curriculum requires immersion or job training in Grade 12.

“It's also possible to already immerse yourself as you begin the coursework…Maybe there are things that you learn in the academic courses or in the electives that you can understand better or appreciate better because you also see them somehow in the workplace,” Oracion said.

The revised program will also allow schools to offer longer immersion - from the minimum of 80 hours to 320 to 640 hours to expose students to the workforce and eventually lead to better employability.