DepEd Meets w/ Academic Experts To Discuss SHS Core Subjects
DEPED – The Department of Education is targeting to reduce the Senior High School (SHS) core subjects from 15 to either 5 or 6.
The K to 12 curriculum is currently implemented in the Philippine educational system. It requires the students to undergo kindergarten, 6 years in elementary, 4 years in junior high school, and 2 years in senior high school. Students who want to proceed to college may do so.
The K to 12 curriculum was adopted in the hope that the graduates of this educational curriculum will have higher employability even if they won’t pursue a degree in college. Truth be told that many Filipino families cannot afford to support the education of the children when they reach college.
However, until now, there is a division on how the public perceives the K to 12 curriculum. Amid its implementation, many people most especially those who plan to go to college are not in favor of it as they lengthen the number of school years in high school.
Meanwhile, there are ongoing reviews and monitoring of the educational curriculum in the Philippines. Recently, the Department of Education affirmed that they are studying the possibility of making changes in the core subjects in the senior high school level.
Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara said that the education department is eyeing to reduce the core subjects in the senior high school level into “just five or six”. He made the pronouncement at the 2024 Regional Conference on Educational Planning in Asia.
The senior high school students are currently required to take 15 core subjects according to DepEd. The Education Secretary expressed that the plan to reduce the core subjects in the SHS is in line with the pursuit of the students to have more time for their on-the-job training to boost the employability of the SHS graduates.
According to DepEd, they already met with the academic experts to boost the efforts in the reviewing and streamlining of the SHS program. Based on the report, the curriculum review for the senior high is ongoing now while the implementation of the revamped K to 10 curriculum is taking place in phases until 2028.
It was just more than a couple of months ago when a change in the leadership in the Department of Education took place. Vice Pres. Sara Duterte resigned from being the education secretary and she was replaced by Sen. Sonny Angara. However, although Duterte is no longer the education secretary, there are still a lot of issues surrounding her term that has yet to be clarified. Duterte is even urged to account the P112.5 million confidential funds of DepEd.