The Department of Education (DepEd) has achieved a major procurement milestone after securing all 105 target textbook titles for public elementary and secondary schools, completing the planned learning resource requirements for curriculum implementation this year.
The procurement covers learning resources for the successive curriculum phases, beginning with Grades 1, 4, 7, and Senior High School (SHS) in 2024; Grade 3 and Grades 2, 5, and 8 in 2025; and Grades 6, 9, and 10 in 2026.
The achievement represents a significant overhaul of the national learning resource pipeline, with nearly four times the number of titles procured over the previous decade combined. It also addresses longstanding procurement bottlenecks identified by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), which reported that only 27 of 88 required titles were procured from 2014 to 2023.
Procurement of K–12 textbooks and teachers’ manuals for SHS Core Subjects has completed the bid opening stage, with complete bidders across all lots. The documents are now undergoing detailed evaluation, subject to the completion of the procurement process and award of contracts. Once contracts are awarded, production, nationwide delivery, and logistics monitoring will follow, with full delivery expected by December 2026.
“For ten years, our public school system was trapped in a cycle where procuring a single textbook title took up to three years, leaving millions of learners and teachers without the fundamental tools they needed,” Education Secretary Sonny Angara said.
“When 27 titles in a decade is your baseline, delivering 105 titles in a single year isn’t just an administrative achievement; it is a fundamental restoration of service to our learners,” Angara added.
He said DepEd dismantled unnecessary bottlenecks, enforced stricter timelines, and strengthened transparency, speed, and quality control to ensure schools receive complete and high-quality learning resources on time.
Progress accelerated through a series of policy adjustments, with completion rising from 31 percent during the 2014–2023 period to 57 percent across 2024 and 2025 combined, before reaching 100 percent in 2026.
The operational shift was driven by DepEd Order No. 008, series of 2025, which established stricter timeline limits, mandatory blind content evaluations, and the removal of redundant review cycles.
Under the updated guidelines, initial technical checks must be completed within five days, while content evaluation is limited to a 90-calendar-day period. Price considerations are also evaluated separately from material quality scoring.
Titles that pass all quality assurance stages proceed directly to procurement without further text modifications, helping prevent the multi-year approval delays that previously slowed the delivery of updated instructional materials to schools.
The new governance framework also clearly defines responsibilities across organizational levels, from Central Office oversight to delivery monitoring by regional offices, schools division offices, and school principals.
All 105 approved printed and electronic textbook titles are now moving through procurement and nationwide distribution for classroom implementation.
