Manila: Education officials announced on Tuesday that the government is enhancing its efforts to tackle persistent issues within the K to 12 program, particularly focusing on the employability and preparedness of senior high school (SHS) graduates.
According to Philippines News Agency, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Secretary Jose Francisco Benitez emphasized that a significant concern is the employability of SHS graduates. TESDA has been concentrating on ensuring that graduates are job-ready through free assessments and certifications. Funds have been allocated for the free assessment of SHS students, enabling them to obtain National Certificates (NC) II and III.
Benitez highlighted that, with financial backing from the President and Congress, TESDA began offering free competency assessments for SHS students in 2025, an initiative set to continue in 2026. "We have reached almost 190,000 senior high school students who were properly assessed and certified as employable with National Certificates (NC) II and NC III in accordance with the courses that they would have taken in senior high school," Benitez stated, underscoring the program's aim to ensure job readiness for graduates who undergo assessment.
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Shirley Agrupis noted that the K to 12 program was a priority in the education sector's first joint Management Committee meeting, involving the Department of Education (DepEd), TESDA, and CHED. This meeting marked the first formal alignment of policies among the three agencies.
Agrupis identified a significant challenge in ensuring the preparedness of incoming freshmen for their chosen college courses. She mentioned that CHED is implementing a bridging program to address student readiness. Furthermore, CHED is advocating for a standardized entrance assessment to better guide students into suitable higher education pathways while harmonizing evaluation standards with TESDA to minimize workforce skills mismatches.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara revealed that DepEd has revised the SHS curriculum to address criticisms of it being overly congested. The streamlined curriculum now includes five core subjects, with the remaining subjects serving as electives, allowing students to combine academic and technical-vocational subjects. This change aims to prepare students for a rapidly evolving job market, including the influence of artificial intelligence.
Angara also mentioned that industry connections have been bolstered by increasing required job immersion hours from a maximum of 300 hours to 640 hours, nearly equivalent to an academic semester.
Benitez added that TESDA and CHED are further aligning training standards and curricula to facilitate seamless pathways between technical-vocational education and higher education, providing students with multiple entry and exit points within the formal education system.
Meanwhile, Angara highlighted the fully funded Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) program, which will hire approximately 448,000 tutors nationwide in 2025, supported by an increased budget. This program is expected to benefit about 6.7 million learners this year, more than double the 3 million beneficiaries from the previous year.
Angara also reported that DepEd saved more than PHP200 million by identifying and removing "ghost students" from enrollment records following a system review under his leadership.
The ongoing reforms undertaken by the three education officials aim to ensure that the K to 12 program fulfills its original promise of producing graduates who are both academically prepared and employable.
