DepEd adds ‘e-commerce track’ to secondary schools

To better align the core curriculum with the demands and opportunities of the digital economy, the Department of Education (DepEd) plans to introduce an e-commerce track for final-year high school students.

On Thursday, the Department of Education signed a memorandum of understanding (MOA) with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Thames International School Inc. to establish the new course.

READ: Philippine e-commerce market set to grow 15% this year

According to the DTI, Thames was chosen as a partner because it is a “leading provider of business education” in the country.

“A good chance” of finding a job

According to Thames CEO and co-founder Jaime Noel Santos, the “specialized” e-commerce program will be piloted in 50 schools in three regions: Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Calabarzon (provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) and will involve about 1,000 students.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara said they plan to introduce the new curriculum in the 2024-2025 school year, which officially began on July 29.

Speaking to reporters during the signing of the agreement in Makati City, Angara said President Marcos “will be delighted because he told me that we should be able to provide jobs to our high school graduates and that there is a big chance for them to find employment.”

“And since the adoption of the Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education Act, we have been promising that students will be able to find a job as soon as they complete Grade 12,” he added.

Four current songs

Santos said the three pilot regions were chosen primarily because they currently have the highest density of e-commerce companies and students who choose the new track can be hired “immediately after graduation.”

Introducing e-commerce during the school year that just started is still feasible because students can still change majors during their first semester, Santos explained.

He added that a “train the trainer” programme for teachers will be launched soon as part of the implementation.

Currently, secondary school education in the country includes four tracks: academic, artistic and design, sports, and technical-vocational-vocational.

The academic track consists of four areas: accounting, business and management (ABM); science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); humanities and social sciences (HUMSS); and the general academic area (GAS).

Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), the premier technology and vocational education institution, offers courses in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. One of Tesda’s programs in this area is iSTAR, an enhanced version of Sari-Sari Store Training and Access Resources, which provides free entrepreneurship training through blended learning.

Gina Gonong, Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction, said the inclusion of the e-commerce track will be part of the ongoing review and revision of the secondary school curriculum.

“We see that there is potential for it to become part of our high school curriculum, which is still undergoing review and reconstruction,” Gonong told reporters.