Social science colleges and professors are up in arms over a plan to reduce general education (GE) subjects in college from an average of 36 to 18 to 21 units, arguing it would water down education and limit student’s critical thinking.
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is proposing to reduce GE units under a “reframed” curriculum to focus on “outcomes-based education,” a major overhaul of the education system to fit labor market demands.
CHED Technical Panel for General Education chair Edizon Fermin said the proposed changes are intended to “modernize and streamline general education” from stand-alone subjects toward “broader learning outcomes and interdisciplinary instruction.”
Subjects such as ethics would instead become a “cost-cutting consideration” integrated across several GE subjects, Fermin said.
Under the proposal, the new five core GE courses shall be professional communication, global trends/emerging technologies, data evidence and ethics, Rizal/Philippine studies, and labor education.
Standalone courses in philosophy, literature, art appreciation, and certain social sciences shall be removed or integrated into the new skills-based courses.
CHED executive director Cinderella Filipina Benitez-Jaro added the commission has constitutional and legal authority to redefine minimum standards for higher education.
Mounting opposition
University of Santo Tomas philosophy professor Paolo Bolaños warned that ethics education may be diminished under the proposed restructure, adding it risks being reduced to a functional response to misinformation and data management rather than a critical and foundational discipline.
“What’s ethics now? Ethics is reduced to a response to fake news and a tool for managing data. That’s what ethics is in the current GE or in the proposed GE,” he said.
Ateneo de Manila University vice president for higher education Maria Luz Vilches called on the Commission to reconsider its plan, proposing instead for the restoration of liberal arts courses “which are essential to holistic higher education.”
Vilches emphasized that CHED’s proposed framework risks narrowing the purpose of university education to mere job training and questions the “kinds of citizens” such a proposal would produce.
The History Department of the University of the Philippines meanwhile said the CHED proposal had not been subjected to a consultation process and may violate the spirit of such as such as the Rizal Law (Republic Act 1425.
The department said the proposal disregards the situation and careers of social science and humanities professors. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
