Mandated General Education Courses (Rizal, taxation, land reform, etc.) should go to Grade 11 or 12

Nap B. Imperial

Following is the full text of an April 17th comment by Nap B. Imperial, Deputy Executive Director, CHED, to the immediately preceding post, “Enhanced Basic Education Act: Update From Lino Gerona“:

Here are the compelling reasons why other legally-mandated subjects (Rizal, taxation, land reform, etc.) should be downloaded to grade 11 or 12:

1. The typical 4-year college degree program in the Philippines is already too full-packed and should be decongested of subjects that can well be taken up in the Senior High School. Degree programs should concentrate on professional training and should be shorn of remedial or General Education subjects that should not duplicate the G.E. Program in college (making it unnecessarily long) not only to make it less costly but also to enable it to concentrate in professional training as in other K-12 countries where the typical degree program is only of 3-year duration (no G.E. program).

2. If we do not restructure higher education programs to shorter duration, then, from having one of the shortest in the world, we will end up as one of the few educational systems with the longest stretch of formal education, something that families can ill afford.

3. The K-12-dovetailed national G.E. Program which consists of 75 units and takes 2 years or more to complete has been revised and re-oriented in view of K-12. Spread over the envisioned 3 or four years, the 35-unit G.E. Program is designed not to be remedial for most students but to give them a multifaceted (globally-oriented and nationally-rooted) competencies and preparation needed by professionals in the 21st century.

4. Graduates of Senior High School have the option to join the world of work. And many parents, indeed, especially those from poor families, would like to see their children to be immediately job-ready. Will it not be fair and imperative if young Filipinos who do not go to college and decide to work, are already well-imbued with the teachings and ideals of Rizal by teaching them the course in the terminal parts of their basic education. Psychology and age-wise (at age 17 or 18) they can better learn and appreciate and apply Rizal and what he lived and died for.