Skills devt to be added to senior high curriculum

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday ordered the improvement of the country’s senior high school curriculum through the addition of technical and vocational training.

Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Deputy Director General Rosanna Urdaneta said the President wants senior high school students and graduates to be ready for employment.

“What the President had instructed the Tesda director general, Secretary [Suharto] Mangudadatu, is for him to work closely with DepEd (Department of Education) and harmonize the TVET (technical and vocational education training) curriculum as well as that of the senior high school. So, we proposed this embedment,” Urdaneta said in a Palace briefing.

“This means the DepEd curriculum was studied by Tesda. We sat down together with DepEd for us to be able to contextualize, for example, subjects of the DepEd. Tesda looked into that. We incorporated; we have integrated skills development into the curriculum,” she added.

Urdaneta said Marcos gave the order during a meeting with Tesda, the Department of Labor and Employment, the Commission on Higher Education, and DepEd in Malacañang.

She added they presented a proposal to the President based on a report by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies showing senior high school graduates with employable skills could fill the demand for workers.

Urdaneta said a pilot testing of the integration process will be done in select schools across the country.

Mangudadatu, meanwhile, gave assurances that the initiative would not in any way change the K to 12 curriculum.

“The curriculum will stay the same; nothing will be changed. But the prioritization of the lesson will be given more emphasis. Not all 80 to 84 programs will be included, only those which will be a good match,” the Tesda chief said.