MANILA (PIA) — The Department of Education (DepEd) finds it rather inappropriate to compel senior high school students to take on 22 subjects, for which Education Secretary Sonny Angara hinted at the need to decongest the existing curriculum.
To start with, Sec. Angara said that DepEd will be clustering some of the school subjects from which senior high school students may choose their ‘elective’ as part of the agency’s rational approach to enabling students to focus on their individual interests.
According to the education chief, the current curriculum is “too much” to handle for students, even though he claimed that as many as 22 subjects are listed upon entering Grade 11, regardless of the chosen track: Academic, Technical Vocational Livelihood, Sports, or Arts and Design.
“But in all four of those tracks, you still have to take 22 subjects, so maybe what we want is to reduce them a bit,” Angara explained.
The Education Secretary went as far as comparing the local school curriculum with that of other countries noted for high levels of education. For example, England has only three to four subjects under SHS. In Australia, SHS students only take six subjects, and seven in the USA.
“We won’t reduce the subjects they take, but we’ll make some of them voluntary or elective,” Angara said.
DepEd will craft a “core” for all four tracks to ensure that whatever track the student takes, he or she will still be “well-equipped,” Angara said.
“They will have reading and writing skills, communication skills, personal development or soft skills, and physical education, so they become well-rounded, no matter what they do. They will also have foundational skills,” he added.
However, Angara emphasized electives deemed compatible with the student’s chosen fields of study.
Relatedly, the Senior High School National Task Force (SHS-NTF) earlier presented its recommendations to DepEd to improve the implementation of the SHS program. (AVS/PIA-NCR)
