The Department of Education has clarified that it has “not suggested” adding a 13th grade to the senior high school program.
During a briefing before the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture, Education assistant secretary Janir Datukan stated that the circulating claim—that DepEd purportedly proposed an extra year in the current SHS curriculum—is false.
“We have no such proposal for Grade 13, we only have Grades 11 and 12. That’s fake news po,” he said.
“We’ve seen that [misinformation]. We actually released an announcement from the DepEd Philippines Facebook page na sinasabing hindi po totoo ‘yun,” he added.
Datukan emphasized that introducing a “Grade 13” was **never discussed or contemplated** within the Department of Education.
He clarified that a comprehensive revamp of the senior high school curriculum is in progress. DepEd announced in April that the redesigned SHS program will streamline its structure by reducing the core subjects from 15 each semester to only five across the entire Grade 11 year and offering fewer specialized tracks.
DepEd aims to fully implement this strengthened curriculum by School Year 2026-2027.