The Department of Education (DepEd) will expand its pilot implementation of the reformed Senior High School (SHS) program to 841 schools for the upcoming School Year 2025-2026, up from an initial 727.
Education Undersecretary Wilfredo E. Cabral announced the increase Monday during a House Committee on Basic Education and Culture hearing.
The expansion follows feedback from a Senate Committee on Basic Education hearing earlier in May, which suggested including more rural schools in the pilot program.
Cabral said the initial 727 schools were classified as “highly ready,” while the additional schools are considered “moderately ready.”
The final list now includes 35 rural schools, compared to the initial 20. Of the 841 participating schools, 580 are public and 261 are private. These schools represent 6.6 percent of the 12,789 SHS schools nationwide.
“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.
Factors considered in classifying the schools included school size, rural versus urban location, track offerings, public versus private management and stand-alone versus integrated models.
Training for teachers in the participating schools is scheduled from 25 May to 7 June, while School Year 2025-2026 will begin on 16 June.
Under the revised SHS curriculum, Grade 11 students will take five core subjects for a full year, a significant reduction from the previous 15. The five core subjects are Effective Communication/Mabisang Komunikasyon, Life Skills, General Mathematics, General Science, and Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino (Study of Philippine History and Society).
Subjects previously considered core will now be offered as “electives,” allowing students to choose subjects aligned with their chosen career paths.