DepEd to offer specialized tracks to senior high students

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) will soon offer senior high school students specialized tracks as part of the K12 curriculum.

"We are adapting to the needs of a child to explore his/her strengths, weaknesses and interests, thus, our curriculum intends to be learner-centered,” DepEd Undersecretary for Programs and Projects Dina Ocampo said.

Ocampo said DepEd is completing a senior high school curriculum by February next year which will offer academic, technical-vocational, sports, and arts and design tracks to guide students in determining their respective career paths.

Under the academic track, the curriculum offers accountancy, business and management, humanities and social science, general academics and science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Each track includes 15 core subjects and 16 track subjects or 31 subjects under 2,840 hours.

The core subjects include language, humanities, communication, mathematics, philosophy, science, social science, physical education and health while the track subjects will have nine specialized subjects and seven contextualized subjects.

The contextualized subjects will teach standard competencies that will help the students who decide to shift to another track.

"“The goal of the K12 curriculum is to equip students with higher education, gainful employment, entrepreneurship or middle level skills development once they graduate from senior high school,” Ocampo said.