What the revised K to 12 program will look like

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The Department of Education identifies 841 public and private schools that will start the revised K to 12 program this upcoming school year

After years of public outcry over the unfulfilled promises of the K to 12 program, such as producing competitive and employable graduates, the Department of Education (DepEd) is finally revising the curriculum, set to be implemented in School Year 2025 to 2026.

At the House of Representatives’ public briefing on Monday, May 19, the DepEd presented its revised K to 12 curriculum that aims to “decongest” the current one and “empower” senior high school graduates for employment.

Under the revised program, the core subjects will be reduced to five for each grade — Grade 11 and Grade 12 — from the old 15 core subjects. The DepEd also identified the teachers who will teach these subjects. This is crucial because, during the implementation of the Matatag curriculum, teachers were left in the dark about how to teach the subjects assigned to them. (READ: Teachers dismayed by ‘chaotic’ rollout of Matatag curriculum)

• Effective Communication – English and Filipino teachers
• Life and Career Skills – Values, PE, and Personal Development teachers
• General Mathematics – Mathematics teachers
• General Science – Science teachers (any major)
• Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino – Social Science teachers

The tracks are also reduced to two: academic and technical professional. Before it was four: academic, technical-vocational livelihood, sports, and arts and design.

Unlike in the old K to 12, where students were only required to take subjects in their chosen strand, the revised program allows them to take subjects from any of the “clusters of subjects” offered by their school and from the other strand.

“While there is no minimum number of electives per semester, schools are encouraged to optimize 30 hours of contact time per week,” the DepEd said.

“For example, learners who will opt to take TechPro electives will use up only 17 hrs per week in their Grade 12 first semester. To optimize the time, they may take three Academic electives through the doorway/cross-track option,” the department added.

Table from DepEd presentation

The two tracks, academic and technical professional, have elective subjects — called clusters of subjects — under them, which provide students a “doorway of option.”

“Subjects are grouped into clusters to help schools efficiently organize teachers and learning resources. However, clusters are not the same as strands because schools are not required to offer all electives within a cluster, and students can choose electives across multiple clusters,” the DepEd explained.

Below are the electives under the academic track:

Below are the electives under the technical professional track:

Pilot schools

The DepEd identified 841 public and private schools that will start the revised K to 12 program this upcoming school year. Of these, 580 are public schools and 261 are private schools. The DepEd has not released the list of schools yet. We will update this story once they do.

Training of teachers for pilot schools will be done from May 25 until June 7. Classes will start on June 16. – Rappler.com