In the Context of the K to 12 Program Availability of SHS Programs 162. Because not all schools offer all academic tracks, learners are limited to the SHS programs available in schools that are only accessible to them and those they can afford. While TESDA has laid out concrete measures in its TVET PH Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Framework, they are designed only for the Technical-Vocational-Livelihood track. Schools with programs for the Academic track and the Sports and Arts tracks are limited and are usually offered by private academic institutions that not all learners can afford to attend. Overlapping courses of SHS and college programs Since some GE subjects are still embedded in the SHS curriculum, overlaps are possible despite CHED’s overhaul in 2013 of core GE subjects offered for firstyear college.188 For instance, Contemporary Philippine Arts from the Regions in the SHS curriculum seems similar to the GE subject Art Appreciation for first-year college students as well as the SHS subjects, Oral Communication, and Reading and Writing, with Purposive Communication subject in first-year college. The subject titles may be different, but their scope may be similar. Monitoring of students’ career pathways after graduation 163. While private schools and universities conduct graduate tracer studies, public schools, state universities, and local colleges do not conduct them, or if they do, not regularly. DepEd has not conducted a tracer study of K to 12 graduates to date despite welcoming the first batch of Grade 11 students in 2016 and the first senior high school graduates in 2018. Such data and empirical evidence are crucial in monitoring the employability of SHS graduates. In the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic Shifting to online modalities 164. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing issues in the state of the country’s education with the shift to modular and distance or online learning. Two key issues are highlighted in the adoption of online learning modalities. One is accessibility, as it has become challenging for students and their families to acquire gadgets and devices that can connect to the internet and run different learning applications or software. Moreover, while some schools provide self-learning modules and transistor radio units with USB slots and use plug-play-and-learn schemes to reach as many learners as possible, especially those in remote areas, such initiatives are not enough. So, advocacy groups and CSOs fill in the gaps by deploying a mobile classroom, conducting public school training sessions on online 188 Commission on Higher Education, General Education Curriculum: Holistic Understandings, Intellectual and Civic Competencies, Memorandum Order No. 20, Series 2013, § 3 (June 28, 2013). 59