TL;DR: Senior High School now has five core subjects, not fifteen, and they are all taken in Grade 11 only. DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026, the Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum signed 4 June 2026, defines Core Subjects as "5 mandatory subjects taken in Grade 11 by all learners, regardless of their track and pathway": Effective Communication and Mabisang Komunikasyon, General Mathematics, General Science, Life and Career Skills, and Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino. Each runs 160 instructional hours across one school year of three terms, for 800 hours total, and each is mapped to a specific college general education subject under CHED Memorandum Order No. 020, s. 2013. Grade 12 has no core subjects at all. Grade 12 learners in non-pilot schools during SY 2026-2027 are still on the 2016 curriculum and its old core list.
Most of what is written online about SHS core subjects describes the 2016 curriculum, which for incoming Grade 11 learners is no longer the curriculum they are on. This guide works from the text of the order that governs now, names the hours and the mapping, and is clear about which learners are still on the old list.
The Five Core Subjects
DO 017, s. 2026 sets out the core subjects in a single table, together with the number of hours and the higher education subject each is aligned to. The order states that the Core Subjects "were developed in close coordination with the Technical Panel for General Education (TPGE) of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)."
| Core Subject | Hours per year | Aligned general education subject |
|---|---|---|
| Effective Communication and Mabisang Komunikasyon | 160 | Purposive Communication |
| General Mathematics | 160 | Mathematics in the Modern World |
| General Science | 160 | Science, Technology, and Society |
| Life and Career Skills | 160 | Understanding the Self |
| Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino | 160 | Readings in Philippine History |
The right-hand column refers to the general education curriculum set by CHED Memorandum Order No. 020, s. 2013. That alignment is the point of the redesign: the core year is meant to carry a learner into the same territory a first-year college general education block covers, rather than run parallel to it.
Note the first row. Effective Communication and Mabisang Komunikasyon appear as one core subject in the order table, which is why the count is five rather than six. It is a single 160-hour core subject with English and Filipino components, not two separate subjects.
Grade 11 Only
This is the structural change people miss. DO 017, s. 2026 states that "All Core Subjects shall be offered in Grade 11 only, with 160 instructional hours per Core Subject in 1 school year (e.g., 3 terms). Core subjects shall no longer be offered in Grade 12."
The effect is that Grade 11 carries the shared academic foundation and Grade 12 is given over to electives and, depending on track, work immersion or field experience. In the graduation requirement tables of the same order, the 800 hours of core subjects sit entirely in the Grade 11 row for both the Academic Track and the Technical-Professional Track.
For the wider picture of what changed and when, see our explainer on the Strengthened SHS curriculum.
What This Replaced
The 2016 Senior High School curriculum ran a much longer core list spread across both grades, alongside applied subjects such as English for Academic and Professional Purposes, Practical Research 1 and 2, Filipino sa Piling Larang, Empowerment Technologies, Entrepreneurship and Inquiries, Investigations and Immersion, plus strand-specific specialised subjects. Titles like Oral Communication, Reading and Writing, Komunikasyon at Pananaliksik sa Wika at Kulturang Pilipino, 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World, Contemporary Philippine Arts from the Regions, Media and Information Literacy, Statistics and Probability, Earth and Life Science, Physical Science, Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person, Personal Development and Understanding Culture, Society and Politics all sat in that structure.
DepEd has described the change publicly as a reduction from 15 core subjects to five, and national outlets have reported it that way. We have not been able to confirm that specific before-and-after count against a line in the order text itself, so treat the number 15 as DepEd messaging rather than a figure quoted from DO 017.
What is in the order text is where those subjects went. Annex F.2 of DO 017, s. 2026 is an equivalency matrix showing which 2016 subjects may be credited against which new subjects when a learner transfers between the two curricula. Several old core titles reappear there as electives: 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World maps to Contemporary Literature 1 and 2; Komunikasyon at Pananaliksik together with Pagbasa at Pagsusuri maps to Filipino 1; Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person keeps its own elective; Earth and Life Science maps to Conceptual Biology and Earth and Space Science. They were not deleted so much as demoted out of the compulsory block.
The old track-and-strand structure those subjects belonged to is set out in our tracks and strands explainer, which remains directly relevant to Grade 12 learners in non-pilot schools this school year.
Who Is Still on the Old Core List
DO 017, s. 2026 phases the new curriculum in over two school years:
| School year | Pilot schools | All other schools |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-2027 | Grade 11 on SSHS; Grade 12 on SSHS as pilot | Grade 11 on SSHS; Grade 12 on the 2016 K to 12 SHS curriculum |
| 2027-2028 | Grades 11 and 12 both on SSHS | Grades 11 and 12 both on SSHS |
So in SY 2026-2027, a Grade 12 learner in a non-pilot school is still taking 2016 core, applied and specialised subjects, with the order directing those schools to focus on the Most Essential Learning Competencies. If you are looking up "SHS core subjects" for a Grade 12 learner this year, the fifteen-subject structure is probably still the correct answer for them. For a Grade 11 learner, it is not.
How the Core Year Is Scheduled
All public schools implementing either curriculum move to a three-term school calendar from SY 2026-2027, under DO 009, s. 2026 as cited in DO 017. Private schools are strongly encouraged to adopt it but may keep a two-semester institutional calendar, provided the prescribed total instructional hours for core subjects and electives are still met. Our DepEd school calendar guide covers the term structure itself.
For classroom scheduling, DO 017 offers three options per core subject: 1.5 hours four times a week; one hour five times a week plus 30 minutes asynchronous; or one hour four times a week plus 1.5 hours asynchronous. The two asynchronous options are recommended for schools running double shifts. Maximum class size for a core subject is 40 learners, against 30 for an Academic Elective and 25 for a Tech-Pro Elective, with an escape clause for schools that cannot comply because of population or facilities.
What a Core Subject Is Worth
Annex E of DO 017, s. 2026 introduces a unit system for computing the general average:
| Subject classification | Instructional hours | Units per term |
|---|---|---|
| Core Subjects | 160 hours across 3 terms | 2 |
| Academic Electives | 80 hours per term | 3 |
| Arts Electives (Arts Apprenticeship, Creative Production and Presentation) | 160 hours per term | 6 |
| Tech-Pro Electives, Grade 11 | 320 hours across 3 terms | 4 |
| Tech-Pro Electives, Grade 12 | 320 hours per term | 12 |
Each subject grade is multiplied by its units, the weighted grades are summed, and the total is divided by the units earned that term. The order is explicit that this unit system "will be used solely for grading purposes in SHS, and will not necessarily be used as a basis for credit transfers in higher education." Do not present it to a college registrar as transferable credit.
Assessment and grading themselves are governed separately, by the revised guidelines that took effect for SY 2026-2027. Our DepEd grading system guide covers that order and flags which older grading material is now out of date.
Disclaimer: subject lists, hours and scheduling options are set by DepEd issuances and clarificatory memoranda and can be adjusted. Confirm with your school which curriculum a specific grade level is on before planning around it.
Comparing Senior High School programmes? Browse schools and check track offerings, tuition and reviews across the Philippines on SchoolFinderPH.
Sources
- DepEd — DO 017, s. 2026, Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum (official)
- DepEd — DM 012, s. 2026, Full Implementation of the Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum in School Year 2026-2027 (official)
- DepEd — Strengthened SHS Program (official hub)
- DepEd — DO 015, s. 2026, Revised Guidelines on Classroom Assessment, Grading System, and Awards and Recognition for the K to 12 Basic Education Program
- CHED — CHED Memorandum Orders, 2013 series (including CMO No. 20, s. 2013 on the general education curriculum)
- Manila Bulletin — DepEd to fully implement Strengthened SHS curriculum in SY 2026-2027
