The Department of Education distinguishes among three different types of subjects in Grades 11 and 12, or Senior High School (SHS).
Every student has to take the Core Subjects, which have the same content and the same competencies for everyone. In other words, no matter what Track students take, they will take exactly the same Core Subjects as everyone else. There are 15 Core Subjects, each of which (except Physical Education & Health) takes 80 hours to complete.
Every student has to take Contextualized Subjects, which ensure that all students will have the same competencies as every other student. These Contextualized Subjects, however, do not all have the same content. The content depends on which Track a particular student chooses. There are 7 Contextualized Subjects, which also each takes 80 hours to complete.
Every student has to take Specialization Subjects, which offer different content and different competencies, depending on the Track that the student takes. There are 9 Specialization Subjects, each of which also takes 80 hours to complete.
Last week, I listed the Core Subjects. This week, allow me to list the Contextualized Track Subjects:
English for Academic and Professional Purposes
Research in Daily Life 1
Research in Daily Life 2
Pagsulat sa Filipino sa Piling Larangan (Akademik, Isports, Sining, at Tech-Voc)
Empowerment Technologies (E-Tech): ICT for Professional Tracks
Entrepreneurship
Research Project / Culminating Activity
Remember that, through the Core Subjects, each student will meet the College Readiness Standards that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has laid down as the minimum requirements for being admitted to any college or university.
What, then, do the Contextualized Subjects add?
Take the language requirements (English and Filipino) that are demanded by employers. In any survey of what employers want to see most in applicants, communication skills come first or second. (Communication skills used to come first, but critical thinking has become the first thing employers look for.)
Why is the English subject contextualized? Why not just plain English as taught from K to 10?
Because the type of English required of those in the Academic Track is not necessarily the type of English required of those in the TVL Track.
(There are four Tracks: Academic, Technical-Vocational-Livelihood or TVL, Sports, and Arts & Design. Each Track has several Strands.)
For example, a student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Strand of the Academic Track will need to know the kind of English needed for tertiary-level work in the humanities. A random example is the English word “closure,†which is a word needed for the Specialized Subject called “Creative Writing.â€
On the other hand, a student aiming to be a tile setter after graduation (enrolled in the TVL Track) needs to know the kind of English needed for his or her future job. A random example is the English word “grout,†which is crucial to a tile setter.
English as a language is not monolithic. It consists of several types, called “registers†or “varieties.†Not every English speaker, no matter how fluent, can understand the kind of English that medical doctors or literary critics use, for example. On the other hand, not every English-speaking scholar can handle the type of English used by, say, sports officials or tour guides. (Sports Officiating is a Specialized Subject in the Sports Track. Tour Guiding Services is a Specialized Subject in the Home Economics Strand of the TVL Track.)
Because of so many Tracks and Strands or Specializations, the curriculum may seem confusing, but if you focus on the key principle, you will not get confused.
The key principle is that every student is prepared to go to college, but at the same time, is given the skills to embark on a particular career pathway immediately after SHS.
The Core Subjects take care of the college readiness. The Contextualized Subjects take care of the specific needs of students pursuing a particular Track. The Specialized Subjects take care of the even more specific needs of students going into a particular occupation immediately after graduation.
Let us give a hypothetical example. Let us say that Maria wants to work in a hotel immediately after SHS.
She takes the Core Subjects together with everybody else in her school. Then she joins some students in the TVL Track for the Contextualized Track Subjects, where she learns the vocabulary necessary to communicate with people checking into hotels. She learns how to speak to foreigners in English and how to speak to Filipinos in Filipino. She does some research in hospitality (perhaps, how many tourists come to the particular hotel she is aiming at), learns how to use hotel computer systems, and works for a while in an actual hotel to gain experience.
After taking the Contextualized Track Subjects, Maria will learn the skills needed for two or three jobs in hotels. She will take the Specialized Subjects that will give her National Certificates for those jobs. For example, she can study Front Office Services, Housekeeping, Food and Beverage Services, or Travel Services. All these job-related subjects will be made available by both DepEd and TESDA in SHS.
If she is in a public high school, all of these subjects will be free. That is one of the best things about the K to 12 curricular reform. (To be continued)