More than 800 schools across the country will participate in the pilot run of the revised Senior High School (SHS) curriculum for Grades 11 and 12 starting School Year 2025–2026, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced Monday.
Education Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral, speaking at a House Committee on Basic Education and Culture briefing, said the DepEd initially identified 727 schools as “highly ready” to implement the strengthened SHS program. Following feedback from the Senate Committee on Basic Education, the list was expanded to include “moderately ready” private and rural schools, raising the total to 841.
Cabral said the expansion allows a broader sample of schools from both urban and rural areas to help address a wider range of implementation challenges during the pilot phase.
The 841 participating schools represent 6.6% of the country’s 12,739 SHS institutions. Of these, 580 are public and 261 are private. A majority—806—are located in urban areas, while 35 are in rural communities.
Selection criteria included school size, geographic location, type of management (public or private), and whether the school operates independently or is integrated with other educational levels.
DepEd will monitor the pilot implementation across various governance levels and is working with the Philippine Institute for Development Studies to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the program.
Teacher training for participating schools will take place from May 25 to June 7. The training will cover core subjects as well as specialized tracks such as Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (Tech-Voc), agriculture, fisheries, and the arts. School heads will also undergo training to prepare for the rollout.
School Year 2025–2026 is scheduled to begin on June 16, 2025, and conclude on March 31, 2026.
