TL;DR: Applied subjects were a distinct category in the 2016 Senior High School curriculum, set out in DepEd Order No. 21, s. 2019, Annex 2 on Secondary Education. There were seven of them, 80 hours each, and every learner took all seven no matter which track they were in: English for Academic and Professional Purposes, Practical Research 1, Practical Research 2, Filipino sa Piling Larang, Empowerment Technologies, Entrepreneurship, and Inquiries, Investigations and Immersion. The point of the category was track mobility. DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026 amended DO 21 and removed the category entirely, so incoming Grade 11 learners have five core subjects plus electives instead. Grade 12 learners in non-pilot schools this school year are still taking applied subjects.
Most material online still describes applied subjects as a current feature of Senior High School. For an incoming Grade 11 learner, it is not. This guide states what the category was, what each subject required, and precisely where each one ended up.
Where the Category Comes From
The authoritative description sits in DepEd Order No. 21, s. 2019, "Policy Guidelines on the K to 12 Basic Education Program," Annex 2, Secondary Education. Paragraph 38 of that annex sets out the arithmetic of the 2016 Senior High School curriculum: 15 subjects in the core curriculum, plus 16 more spread over the four tracks, each subject running 80 hours in a semester, with applied and specialised subjects together totalling 1,280 hours.
The order describes the applied track subjects as "geared toward the acquisition of common but critical competencies in SHS, i.e. English language proficiency, research, ICT, etc., but delivered with teaching-learning content and strategies customized to the requirements of each track."
That single sentence is the whole design. The competency was fixed nationally; the content was localised to the track.
The Seven Applied Subjects
Table 2.8 of the same annex lists them with hours and prerequisites:
| Applied subject | Hours per semester | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| English for Academic and Professional Purposes | 80 | None listed |
| Practical Research 1 | 80 | None listed |
| Practical Research 2 | 80 | Statistics and Probability |
| Filipino sa Piling Larang (Akademik, Isports, Sining, at Tech-Voc) | 80 | None listed |
| Empowerment Technologies (for the Strand) | 80 | None listed |
| Entrepreneurship | 80 | None listed |
| Inquiries, Investigations, and Immersion | 80 | None listed |
Two details in that table are worth pausing on. Practical Research 2 is the only applied subject with a stated prerequisite, and it is a core subject, Statistics and Probability, which is why schools that shuffled the core sequence sometimes ended up with learners taking quantitative research before they had the statistics to run it. And Filipino sa Piling Larang existed in four track-specific versions rather than one, which is the clearest illustration of the contextualisation principle.
For what the research subjects actually required, see our guides to Practical Research 1 and Practical Research 2, and for the writing subject, our EAPP subject guide.
Why the Category Existed
Paragraph 39 of Annex 2 gives the reasoning outright: the applied track subjects "make the SHS curriculum flexible because it allows the learner to move across tracks, in case s/he changes her/his mind in the middle of SHS."
DepEd's own worked illustration is the research subjects. The Arts and Design track might run its research subject on a particular art technique while the Sports track runs it on the mechanics of a particular sport. Different topics, same research skills, so a transferring learner does not lose a semester.
That is a real answer to a real problem. Roughly a third of Senior High learners change their minds about direction, and before the applied block existed a track switch could cost credits. Whether it worked well in practice is a separate question, but the intent was explicit and written down.
The Category No Longer Exists
DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026, the Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum signed 4 June 2026, states in its cover pages that it "shall amend DepEd Order (DO) No. 021, s. 2019 (Policy Guidelines on the K to 12 Basic Education Program), specifically Annex 2 on Secondary Education, as well as DO 030, s. 2017 (Guidelines for Work Immersion)."
What replaces it is a two-part structure rather than a three-part one. The order defines Core Subjects as "5 mandatory subjects taken in Grade 11 by all learners, regardless of their track and pathway," and everything else as Electives, grouped into five clusters in the Academic Track and ten in the Technical-Professional Track. There is no applied category, no applied hours line in the graduation tables, and no applied heading anywhere in Annex A, which lists every elective.
Our SHS core subjects guide covers the new five, and the Strengthened SHS curriculum explainer covers the restructure as a whole.
Where Each Applied Subject Went
Annex F.2 of DO 017 is an equivalency matrix, published so that schools can credit a learner transferring between the two curricula. It is the most concrete answer available to "what happened to my subject", because it is DepEd stating in writing which old subject counts as which new one.
| 2016 applied subject | Credited under the new curriculum as |
|---|---|
| Practical Research 1 and Practical Research 2 | Research 1 and Research 2, in the Field Experience cluster |
| Inquiries, Investigations and Immersion, with the Culminating Activity | Design and Innovation |
| Empowerment Technologies | Empowerment Technologies, in the STEM cluster |
| Entrepreneurship | Entrepreneurship, in the Business and Entrepreneurship cluster |
| Filipino sa Piling Larang (Akademik) | Filipino 1 (Wika at Komunikasyon sa Akademikong Filipino) |
| Filipino sa Piling Larang (Isports, Sining at Disenyo, Teknikal-Bokasyonal) | The corresponding Filipino 2 variants |
| English for Academic and Professional Purposes | Not listed in the matrix |
That last row is not an oversight on our part. We read the matrix and English for Academic and Professional Purposes does not appear in it. The nearest structural equivalent is the new core subject Effective Communication and Mabisang Komunikasyon, which runs 160 hours across the Grade 11 year and is aligned to the college general education subject Purposive Communication under CHED Memorandum Order No. 020, s. 2013. But DepEd has not stated that the two are equivalent, and it would be wrong to say it has.
Note also that the new Research 1 and Research 2 are elective subjects in the Field Experience cluster, and Field Experience electives are optional for Academic Track learners. Under the old structure both research subjects were compulsory for everyone. That is a substantive change, not a renaming.
Who Is Still Taking Applied Subjects
DO 017 phases the new curriculum in over two years: Grade 11 in SY 2026-2027, Grade 12 in SY 2027-2028. The order states that for SY 2026-2027, Grade 12 learners who are not enrolled in pilot schools "shall continue to follow the 2016 K to 12 SHS curriculum."
So this school year there are two populations. An incoming Grade 11 learner has five core subjects and electives, and will never take an applied subject. A Grade 12 learner in a non-pilot school is still on the 2016 structure, still finishing applied subjects, and should ignore any guide that tells them the category is gone. The old structure is set out in our tracks and strands explainer.
If you are a teacher, the practical consequence is that both curricula run in the same building this year, and a transferring learner needs the Annex F.2 matrix and the Annex F.1 subject evaluation checklist to be credited correctly.
Choosing a senior high school? Browse schools and compare tracks, tuition and reviews across the Philippines on SchoolFinderPH.
Sources
- DepEd — DO 21, s. 2019, Policy Guidelines on the K to 12 Basic Education Program (official PDF, Annex 2 Secondary Education)
- DepEd — DO 017, s. 2026, Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum
- DepEd — DM 012, s. 2026, Full Implementation of the Strengthened SHS Curriculum in SY 2026-2027
- DepEd — SHS Applied Track curriculum guide, English for Academic and Professional Purposes (official PDF)
- DepEd — SHS Applied Track curriculum guide, Practical Research 1 (official PDF)
- DepEd — Strengthened SHS curriculum guide, Research 1 (official PDF)
- SchoolFinderPH — SHS Core Subjects Guide
- SchoolFinderPH — Strengthened SHS Curriculum: What Changed
