A Department of Education (DepEd) official admitted that the five core subjects in the strengthened Senior High School (SHS) program are not sufficient for students to be deemed “college ready.”

During the Senate Basic Education Committee hearing on Thursday, the Education Department discussed the reform of the SHS program that will be piloted in several schools this coming school year.

Under the reform, the 15 current SHS core subjects will be reduced to five core subjects: Effective Communication/Mabisang Komunikasyon, Life Skills, General Mathematics, General Science, and Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino.

However, DepEd Undersecretary for Curriculum and Teaching Gina Gonong admitted that the five core subjects are not sufficient for students to be prepared for college.

“I’ll be very realistic, Senator Win, the five proposed core subjects are not enough for students to be college-ready, they need to take electives,” Gonong said. “For example, a student wants to do a STEM course later on in college, we need to guide our students to take science-related electives.”

Gonong noted that they have asked the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to provide a list of program prerequisites for them to guide their students in choosing electives related to their career path.

During the hearing, chairman of the panel Senator Sherwin Gatchalian also voiced opposition to core subjects being repeated in higher education institutions and bridging programs, citing that it is a “cost of burden for many families.”

A bridging program is a short-term course or set of courses to help students meet competencies needed for a college program. These are mostly required when a student’s prior program does not align with the prerequisites of their chosen college course.

“I don't agree with the bridging program. The senior high school curriculum should ensure that learners are ready, so there should no longer be any need for a bridging program. They should be ready to enter college right away. It has to be well-designed, because this is two years, right? And two years is a long time,” Gatchalian said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Edizon Fermin, chairperson of the CHED Technical Panel for General Education, noted that the elimination of bridging programs is among the Commission’s priorities, aside from aligning SHS core courses, the possibility of downloading General Education courses into SHS, among others.

Fermin expressed support for DepEd’s five core subjects, saying that spreading students across 15 subjects makes it difficult to measure their actual competencies.

"You cannot say you are concentrating on a set of essential skills, competencies when there are 15 subjects to begin with. So, we welcome the idea. Let's focus on five proposed core subjects,” he said.

He also acknowledged that the elective system is still at its ‘nebulous stage,’ but welcomed continued refinement of the SHS reform.

The pilot program will be tested in 727 schools nationwide this coming school year, including 567 public and 160 private schools.