New SHS curriculum eyed

THE DEPARTMENT of Education (Deped) plans to roll out its revised Senior High School (SHS) curriculum for the 2026-2027 school year.

“We will be rolling out the pilot study for this coming school year, but we would like to see the full rollout happen by the next school year,” Education Undersecretary Malcolm S. Garma told a Senate hearing on Thursday.

He said the agency would pilot the curriculum in 727 schools nationwide starting June. He added that 567 public schools and 160 private schools would participate in the program.

Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian called on the DepEd to include more schools in rural areas in the pilot program.

“The problem of rural and urban areas are wildly different in terms of specialization and materials,” Mr. Gatchalian said.  “There are only 20 [schools from rural areas] out of the 727. That might not be a good representation of the pilot implementations. It should be 50-50.”

DepEd has reduced the educational tracks for senior high school to two — academic and technical-professional — from the previous four (academic, technical-vocational-livelihood, sports, and arts and design).

It also cut the number of core subjects to five from 15. The five subjects are Effective Communications, Life Skills, General Mathematics, General Science Study of Philippine History and Society. — Adrian H. Halili