19-05-2025
DepEd: 841 schools to join pilot run of revised SHS curriculum
Over 800 schools nationwide are set to participate in the pilot run of the revised Senior High School (SHS) curriculum of the basic education program this incoming School Year 2025-2026, the Department of Education (DepEd) said Monday.
Education Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral explained during a House Committee on Basic Education and Culture briefing that DepEd's central office initially listed 727 schools that were classified as 'highly ready' to be included in the trial of the 'strengthened' program for Grades 11 and 12.
However, upon the feedback from the Senate Committee on Basic Education, the central office decided to also add 'moderately ready' private schools and rural schools, which resulted in the partial list of 841 schools.
'Nag-increase [it increased], Mr. Chair, because we looked at the moderately ready so that we can have several more schools implementing the senior high school from the rural and the urban, so that we can address more issues as we do the pilot and the study as well,' Cabral said.
He also noted that the 841 pilot schools represented 6.60% of the 12,739 total SHS schools across the country.
Of these 841 schools, 580 are public and 261 are private. Eight-hundred six of which are also learning institutions that come from urban areas, while 35 are from rural areas.
Among the parameters considered in finalizing the list were the school size, rural versus urban location, track offerings, public versus private management, and stand-alone versus integrated models.
Once the pilot test begins, Cabral said the DepEd will closely monitor the implementation across different governance levels. The agency has also collaborated with the Philippine Institute for Development Studies to design and implement a reliable evaluation study on the matter.
The training of teachers in participating schools will also be conducted from May 25 to June 7.
'We will be training of course for the TechPro, for agriculture, fisheries, and arts.. We'll also be having training for the core subjects, and we'll also be training our school heads so that they can be ready on the implementation,' Cabral added.
School Year 2025-2026 is set to open on June 16, 2025 and end on March 31, 2026.
Last month, DepEd opened the online public consultation for the revised SHS, inviting stakeholders to provide feedback on the updated Grade 11 and 12 curriculum guides.
One of the key features of the new curriculum is the reduction of core subjects from the 15 being offered per semester, to just five that will be offered for a full year in Grade 11.
These five new subjects are: Effective Communication (Mabisang Komunikasyon), Life Skills, General Mathematics, General Science, and Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino.
All subjects that are no longer part of the core will already be called 'electives,' instead of applied and specialized subjects. The new subjects or electives are also updated and grouped under the Academic and TechPro clusters. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News
