VICE President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said Monday the Department of Education is committed to producing employable senior high school graduates under her term.

Duterte said the review of the Kindergarten to Grade 12 program revealed that “the curriculum content is congested, that some prerequisites of identified essential learning competencies are missing or misplaced, and that a significant number of learning competencies cater to high cognitive demands.”

“We will make the curriculum relevant to produce competent, job-ready, active, and responsible citizens. We will revise the K to 12 curriculum to make them more responsive to our aspiration as a nation, to develop lifelong learners who are imbued with 21st-century skills, discipline, and patriotism,” she said in her speech at the presentation of the Basic Education Report 2023 in Pasay City.

“The K to 12 curriculum promised to produce graduates that are employable. The promise remains a promise,” the Vice President added.

The review of the K to 12 curriculum aims to ensure that graduates are immediately employable.

Duterte said that her agency will focus on strengthening literacy and numeracy programs, revitalizing Reading, Science and Technology, and Math programs by utilizing the gains of previous programs.

The programs, according to Duterte, will be benchmarked with local and international best practices, consulted with experts, and will be research or evidence-based.

“We will improve English proficiency while recognizing linguistic diversity. We will work towards the goal of English language proficiency within the context of a multilingual nation,” Duterte said.

“We will review the implementation of the Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education Policy, guided by the basic principle that, among others, learners learn when taught in a language that they understand,” she added.