LAST week, this space lauded the good work being done by the Department of Education (DepEd) on several fronts. This week, as the school opening looms, the country’s biggest department again faces several problems, mostly dealing with that perennial thorn called “the curriculum,” or what should subjects be taught, why and when.
Despite mounting and persistent concerns from stakeholders, the DepEd will proceed with the pilot implementation of the strengthened senior high school curriculum for Grade 12 in school year 2026-2027, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said.
In DepEd Memorandum 036, series of 2026, Angara directed officials to ensure that only incoming Grade 12 students who previously took the revised Grade 11 subjects during the initial rollout in school year (SY) 2025-2026 will be covered by the revised curriculum.
Under the revised curriculum, core subjects will no longer be offered in Grade 12. These subjects include Effective Communication/Mabisang Komunikasyon, General Mathematics, General Science, Life and Career Skills and Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino. These core subjects were already completed in Grade 11.
The DepEd added that work immersion, which will range from 320 to 640 hours, remains mandatory for TechPro learners “to ensure alignment with industry demands.” On the other hand, for Academic Track learners, work immersion is optional but recommended for those seeking immediate post-secondary employment. “Academic Track learners intending to pursue higher education are instead recommended to take Field Exposure,” the DepEd said.
The strengthened SHS curriculum was initially launched in 887 schools nationwide in SY 2025-2026.
Juan and Juana cannot read
The continued rollout of the revised SHS curriculum comes as the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) reported that nearly half of Filipino learners still failed to meet grade-level expectations in reading proficiency by the end of SY 2025-2026. Based on the DepEd’s own nationwide literacy assessments, Edcom 2 said an average of 40 percent of learners from Grades 1 to 10 were classified as struggling readers at the beginning of the school year.
While the number of learners considered grade-level ready, or independent readers, improved from 19 percent in June 2025 to 48 percent in March 2026, around one in two learners still remained below grade-level proficiency by the end of the school year. The commission also flagged alarming literacy gaps in senior high school. It noted that in DepEd’s pilot Senior High School Literacy and Numeracy Assessment, 87 percent of Grade 11 students were not independent readers.
While improvements were observed in the elementary level, the gains tapered off in later grades. This is particularly seen for learners from Grades 7 to 10. They were still unable to become independent readers as academic demands became more advanced. In short, Juan and Juana cannot read. How can they then proceed to the rigors of academic work in the succeeding years if the letters and words don’t mean anything to them?
“We commend DepEd for undertaking a comprehensive literacy assessment, even going the extra mile to examine how our students are doing in senior high school. This baseline data provides a clear starting point on the refinement of interventions as the DepEd conducts the ARAL (Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning) Summer Program and prepares for the second year of the full rollout of ARAL interventions,” Edcom 2 executive director Karol Mark Yee said.
He added that while progress has been made under the ARAL program, the government must now focus on strengthening interventions for high school learners.
“Moving forward, our task now is to design specialized supports to our students in high school, and to better differentiate interventions to help our students actually reach grade level readiness,” Yee said.
The DepEd also released P29.16 billion in 2025 for the procurement of textbooks and supplementary reading materials to help combat illiteracy among the young. The aim is to have a ratio of one textbook per student in the public schools. This will be augmented by books on communication, literature, history, science, mathematics and even general fiction, gender, LGBTQ topics, and the like, to encourage learners to read.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers, however, said the literacy crisis reflected deeper structural problems in the education sector. This includes a tendency to follow the neo-liberal path to progress, low teachers’ pay and lack of continuous improvement in updating the teachers’ skills.
School will open in a few days and we see a department trying its best to face the headwinds of a big student population and scarce resources.
