Regional Director Allan A. Fernazo of DepEd XII announced that the DepEd already set in place the requirements in managing  the Senior  High School (SHS) program. The announcement was made  recently  during the Second Quarter Regional Social Development Committee (RSDC) meeting at Villa Amor Hotel, Koronadal City.

RD Fernazo said that SHS program  aims  to  have  a holistically developed Filipino with 21st century skills and this is  possible by incorporating  31 subjects into the curriculum. The subjects   are composed of 15 core and 16 track based subjects.

The core subjects include: language, science, philosophy, social science, mathematics, communication, humanities, PE and health. The track subjects are academic, technical-vocational-livelihood, sports, and arts and design.

Farnazo also shared that based on the assessment conducted, 46  percent  of the target learners indicated  their interest in  techvoc, followed by academic tracks (43%), sports (6%), and arts and design (5%). In terms of occupational interest inventory, most target learners expressed interest in agriculture, aesthetics, and mechanical subjects.

“Almost 57 thousand students will enroll in SHS in 2016-2017. Thus, DepEd XII proposed an additional 6,577 class and laboratory rooms for 2016 and a total of about 3,565 teachers,” RD Farnazo added.

To address the resources needed for the implementation of the Program, DepEd issued Memorandum 4, Series of 2014, encouraging non-DepEd Schools, including private high schools and private and public higher education institutions to offer SHS  in  2016-2017.