Background

 The education system of the Philippines has been highly influenced by the country’s colonial history.  That history has included periods of Spanish, American and Japanese rule and occupation (StudyCountry, 2021). It one of the important contribution of the American colonialization in the country on 1898. During that period, English was introduced as the primary language of teaching and a system of public education was first established—a system modeled after the United States school system and administered by the newly established Department of Instruction.

Education in the Philippines is offered through formal and non-formal systems. Formal education typically spans 14 years and is structured in a 6+4+4 system: 6 years of primary school education, 4 years of secondary school education, and 4 years of higher education, leading to a bachelor’s degree. This is one of the shortest terms of formal education in the world. In the Philippines, the academic school year begins in June and concludes in March, a period that covers a total of 40 weeks. All higher education institutions operate on a semester system—fall semester, winter semester and an optional summer term. Schooling is compulsory for 6 years, beginning at age 7 and culminating at age 12. These 6 years represent a child’s primary school education.

Senior high school or SHS refers to the last two years of the K to 12 program that has been implemented by the Department of Education here in the Philippines since 2012 – namely, grades 11 and 12. Students are now required to choose their preferred senior high strands upon their entrance and to begin studying the subjects that are going to introduce them to the career path that they want to take (Enderun, 2020). The senior high school program is further broken down into learning strands and career tracks. The learning strands in senior high school refer to the different areas of expertise under the program while the career tracks refer to the general categories that each different field of study belongs to.There are currently four career tracks composed of Academic, TVL/TVE, Arts and Design, and Sports. The eight learning strands, meanwhile, are STEM, HUMMS, ABM, GAS, Home Economics, Agri-fishery Arts, Industrial Arts, and ICT.