CHEd: Proposed overhaul of gen ed courses part of ‘continuing reform’

THE COMMISSION on Higher Education (CHEd) defended on May 5 its widely criticized overhaul of the general education (GE) curriculum, saying the planned changes reflected a long transition toward outcomes-based education rather than the dismantling of traditional disciplines.

Public hearing: Officials presented the proposed GE curriculum during a public consultation streamed live on social media, amid a bevy of criticism from academics, including from UST professors.

• “In 1996, college students in the Philippines were required to complete 63 units of general education. By 2013, when the K-12 reform took effect, that number had been reduced to 36 units,” CHEd Executive Director Cinderella Benitez-Jaro said. 
• “The reduction [did] not begin with this proposal. It is a trajectory that was set more than a decade ago,” Benitez-Jaro added.

Reduced to 18 units: Under a draft CHEd memorandum, the minimum units for GE will be reduced to 18 units, but autonomous higher education institutions (HEIs) like UST can offer up to 36 units. 

• “GE is being restructured, yes, reduced in unit count, but not eliminated… It is made more intentional, more integrated, and more outcomes-focused,” Benitez-Jaro said. 
• The proposed scheme will include core and mandated GE courses totaling 12 units, while institutional GE and academic program-related GE will each have 3 units. 

Six GE courses: A CHEd technical panel proposed six GE courses: Professional Communication; Global Trends and Emerging Technologies; Data, Evidence, and Ethics in a Knowledge-Driven Society; Rizal and Philippine Studies; Labor Education; and an Institutional Course.

• Professional Communication seeks to “cultivate skills in producing coherent written, oral, visual, and multimodal messages integrating citation practices, plain language, and inclusive design.” 
• Global Trends and Emerging Technologies, a combined equivalent of the Contemporary World and Science, Technology, and Society courses, is meant to cultivate “responsible global citizenship,” sustainability, equity, and cultural respect in “evaluating technological and social change.” 
• Data, Evidence, and Ethics in a Knowledge-Driven Society, according to the panel, is a “foundational” research literacy and scientific reasoning competence. 
• Rizal and Philippine Studies is an interdisciplinary examination of Jose Rizal’s life. The panel clarified that the GE courses Life and Works of Rizal and Readings in Philippine History will be integrated into a single course. Rizal is required by a law passed in 1956.
• Labor Education is for students to acquire a “grounded understanding” of labor rights and standards to analyze labor protection and apply ethical standards in diverse organizational settings. Labor Education is now also required under a 2021 law.
• The Institutional Course “pedagogically” employs immersive community encounters and collaborative civic projects. 

‘Outcomes-based’: Jonathan Macayan, co-chair of the technical panel for GE, said the reframed courses would be outcomes-based, marking a shift from a “teacher-centric” to a “student-centric” design.

• “It shifts the focus to the desired competencies and to the learners. The focus is on the outcomes, and this refers to the demonstrable student abilities and competencies beyond knowing and understanding,” he said. 
• Macayan emphasized that the reframed GE moves away from content-based curriculum design toward OBE, focusing on competencies rather than prescribed course titles.
• “This reframed GE did not emerge overnight… and it did not emerge in bad faith,” he said. “This time, designing it as an outcomes-driven curriculum from the ground up… That explains why the proposed [framework] looks strange to those expecting familiar course titles.”

‘Reframed, not removed’: Macayan said the new GE framework would be anchored on desired graduate attributes rather than specific disciplines.

• “The central question that guided us in developing this was not, ‘What courses should we preserve?’ But rather, the central question that we tried to satisfy is, ‘What kind of Filipino graduate must every degree program produce and how can GE contribute to that?’” he said.
• “The GE outcomes describe graduates who can think critically and integratively, reason scientifically and ethically, communicate effectively, engage civically and nationally, act responsibly towards society, culture, and environment, navigate digital and technological spaces, and continue learning across the lifespan,” he added.
• CHEd rejected claims that core disciplines such as ethics, philosophy, and the arts were being removed.
• “Where are the ethics? Where are the arts? Where are the social sciences? The short answer is, they were not removed… They were reframed,” the official said.

‘Market-based education’: Educators challenged both the substance and process of the proposed overhaul. Prof. Paolo Bolaños, former chair of the UST Department of Philosophy, voiced out in the public hearing’s open forum that CHEd had failed to consult technical panels in academic disciplines. 

• “What the elephant in the room is that I think it’s market-based education…who are we satisfying and what are we satisfying? Which outcomes are we satisfying?” he said. 
• Bolaños said the government body’s understanding of ethics was “narrow,” noting that the assumption that philosophy was taught in the senior high school was wrong. 
• “If you think that the level of maturity of students in terms of their grasp of ethics is enough when they enter college, that’s totally wrong,” he said. 

Artlets faculty speak out: In a May 4 statement, the UST Arts and Letters Faculty Association (ALFA) criticized the proposed GE curriculum restructuring, noting that the congressional educational reform body Edcom II, which it said exerted significant influence on the proposal, had failed to consult higher education institutions.

• “We risk creating a generation of graduates who are technically proficient but lack the critical faculties necessary to challenge the status quo or engage in meaningful dialogue,” it said.  
• ALFA warned that the proposed restructuring could threaten faculty members’ jobs in the humanities and social sciences. 
• “The restructuring may lead to job losses, reassignment away from areas of expertise, or increased job insecurity – not due to any shortcomings in teaching, but because of a top-down approach that disregards the voices of those most affected,” it said. 

USTFU backs ALFA: The UST Faculty Union (USTFU) backed ALFA’s position in a May 5 statement, saying universities should transcend the function of mere industry trainers and should not undermine the humanities and social sciences.

• “Educators must retain the right to determine the substance and methods of their instruction to ensure the highest standards of academic integrity,” the statement read.
• USTFU pressed for the preservation of academic freedom, free from external bodies that threaten institutional autonomy.
• “Policy should be forged through collaboration with those on the front lines, not imposed by administrative decree,” it said. 
• USTFU called on the University administration to assert its institutional independence, and other groups to challenge policies that compromise the quality of Philippine higher education.