DepEd releases P12-M tech-voc fund for 12 secondary schools

Education Secretary Armin Luistro. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Education has released a P12-million fund to support technical-vocational high schools now testing out the Senior High School program under the Kindergarten to Year 12 (K-12) basic education reform initiative.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro has allocated a P1-million subsidy for each of the 12 tech-voc high schools that started trying out the K-12 tech-voc curriculum this school year.

“We are assisting these schools so that they may effectively and expediently operate the program through technical and financial support,” said Luistro in a statement.

“Just like a research and development process, we expect to draw out the best practices of participating model schools which we can replicate in the years ahead,” he added.

The Senior High School modeling is part of DepEd’s phased implementation of the K-12 program, which seeks to produce employable high school graduates by adding two years to the 10-year basic education cycle.

In the two added years of Senior High School (grades 11 and 12), students may choose to take specialized training in sports, music and the arts or technical-vocational education.

DepEd started implementing the program through introducing institutionalized public kindergarten last school year and new curricula for Grades 1 and 7 (the new first year high school) this June.

The first batch of senior high school students are expected to enter school in June 2016.

The subsidy would support 12 schools across the country offering training in agriculture, fisheries and other trade-related courses, DepEd said.

Luistro said the amount could be used to prepare instructional materials, teacher training, student assessment and consultation with industry partners.

Last month, DepEd also created a Technical Vocational Unit under its Bureau of Secondary Education to oversee the integration of tech-voc in the K-12 curriculum.