On the Removal of Filipino and Filipino Teachers From the New General Education Curriculum

8/11/2019 On the Removal of Filipino and Filipino Teachers From the New General Education Curriculum

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On the Removal of Filipino andFilipino Teachers from the New

General Education CurriculumJune 23, 2014 at 3:05pm

Press Statement

On the Removal of Filipino and Filipino Teachers from the New

General Education Curriculum

In the past week, two main points were raised about the new General

Education Curriculum (GEC): its alleged failure to intellectualize the

Filipino language; and its supposed displacement of Filipino faculty.

CHED Memorandum Order No. 20, s. 2013, creating, The General

Education Curriculum: Holistic Understandings, Intellectual and Civic

Competencies, specifically provides that the entire curriculum or parts

of it may be taught in Filipino or English, in keeping with Art. XIV, Sec.

7 of the Constitution, which states: For purposes of communication

and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino

and, until otherwise provided by law, English. For this purpose, the

course descriptions approved by the CHED are written in both

languages.

The CHED, moreover, has approved public consultations on the new

recommendation of the GE Technical Panel that at least nine (9) units

of GE courses must be taught in Filipino, with the choice of courses


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left to colleges and universities. After the consultations are completed,

the Technical Panel will present the findings to the Commission, for

final action.

With regard to the displacement of Filipino faculty, the new curriculum

has been reduced from 63 units (for humanities and social science

majors) or 51 units (for science, engineering and math majors) to 36

units for all students. The 27/15 units removed were not all in Filipino.

They also include courses in English, Literature, Math, Natural

Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences. The new GEC, moreover,

offers entirely different courses from the old one.

Hence the displacement is not focused on Filipino teachers but spans

all the disciplines, and therefore the claim that Filipino teachers alone

are displaced is inaccurate, just as the claim that Filipino as the

medium of instruction has no place in the new curriculum is also false.

The more important question is why the old GEC was changed. First,

it contained many remedial courses (in English, Filipino, Math, for

example) that will be taught in the new K-12 curriculum. It would be

unfair to have students take academic track courses in senior high

school, only to repeat them in their first years of college.

Second, the old GE curriculum had courses that were discipinal (such

as introductory courses to specific disciplines) rather than liberal

education in character. These disciplinal courses (such as General

Psychology, Basic Economics) were also removed; the CHED then

crafted courses reflective of liberal education.


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These moves led to the reduction of the GEC from 63/51 to 36

units. By so doing, did the CHED deny the capacity of the Filipino

language for intellectual discourse? No. The entire GEC may be

taught in Filipino if the higher education institution wishes and, if publicconsultations so approve, at least nine units can be required to be

taught in Filipino. Research and publication on and in Filipino will

continue to be supported in key institutions to further enhance the

capacity of the language for intellectual discourse.

Were Filipino teachers uniquely displaced by the new GE

curriculum? No. When the old GE curriculum was reviewed, in light

of the K-12 program and, guided by the nature and spirit of liberal

education, courses in many disciplines were removed.

The intellectualization of the Filipino language and the displacement of

Filipino, Math, Psychology and other former GE faculty are two

entirely distinct matters and should be addressed accordingly.

The possible displacement of higher education faculty as a result of

the new GE curriculum as well as during the period when students are

in Grades 11 and 12 instead of in College is indeed a serious concern.

There areremedies being discussed such as the assignment of

disciplinal courses to former GE faculty, the deployment of some

higher education faculty to senior high school, the grant of

research load to deserving faculty, and others. The CHED, in fact,

has a technical working group studying the challenges posed by

the transition to K12 and is working out alternative solutions with

the help of DepEd, DOLE and other concerned agencies.


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Issued this 23rd of June 2014 at the Higher Education Development

Center Building, C.P. Garcia Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City.

(signed)

PATRICIA B. LICUANAN, Ph.D.

Chairperson

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On the Removal of Filipino and Filipino Teachers From the New General Education Curriculum