General Education on the education highway

First of two parts On August 19, 2009, 14 chairpersons of technical panels for the different clusters of higher education programs met with the technical panel for General Education (GE) for a consultative conference. The purposes were to hear the views of the different technical panels on what they expect from students finishing GE and to suggest the scope and coverage in terms of learning areas that should be included in the proposed GE.

As a backgrounder, General Education aims to contribute in the total development of the student as a person living not only for himself but also for God and others. On September 25, 1996, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) issued CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) 59, s. 1996, which is called New General Education Curriculum.

This CHED memorandum order prescribes the minimum requirements for the mandating General Education Curriculum (GEC) of tertiary courses of study leading to an initial bachelor’s degree covering four curriculum years for a total of 63 units distributed as follows:

I. Language and Literature- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –                 24 units

• English                                                                                     – 9 units

• Filipino                                                                                      – 9 units

• Literature                                                                                 – 6 units

II. Mathematics and Natural Sciences – – – – – – – – – – –                15 units

• Mathematics                                                                             – 6 units

• Natural Sciences                                                                       – 6 units

• Science Elective                                                                        – 3 units

III. Humanities and Social Sciences – – – – – – – – – – – – –   18 units

• Humanities                                                                               – 6 units

Arts & Philosophy

• Social Sciences                                                                  – 12 units Basic

Economics with (Taxation And Agrarian Reform) General Psychology Politics and Governance (with Philippine Constitution) Society and Culture (with Family Planning)

IV. Mandated Subjects– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 6 units

• Life and Works of Rizal

• Philippine History

TOTAL 63 units

The memorandum order further emphasizes that the implementation of the new GEC must be characterized by an interdisciplinary approach which would help the students see the human being as an integral person living in both national and a global community.

On February 18, 1997, CHED Memorandum Order 04, s. 1997 entitled Guidelines for Implementation of CHED Memorandum Order 59, s. 1996 “New General Curriculum [GEC]” was issued. These guidelines define two broad categories of fields of study: a) The Humanities, Social Sciences and Communication (HUSOCOM); and b) fields other than the Humanities, Social Sciences and Communication. The minimum number of units required for the GEC will vary according to the categories of the field of study. It is also specified in the guidelines that tertiary courses of study in Humanities, Social Sciences and Communication shall be considered as GEC-A and therefore students enrolled in these courses shall follow CHED Memorandum Order 59, s. 1996 and those majoring in other fields need not follow GEC-A but instead may follow another set of minimum requirements known as GEC-B which consists of the following:

a) At least 21 units in Humanities, consist of:

English                                                                                   6 units

Filipino                                                                                   6 units

Humanities subject                                                                9 units

b) At least 15 units in Mathematics, Natural

Sciences, and Information, consisting:

Mathematics                                                                        6 units

Natural Sciences                                                                 6 units

Elective (e.g. Mathematics,

Natural Sciences, Technology)                                            3 units

c) At least12 units in Social Sciences

d) One separate subject on Rizal’s Life

and Works

TOTAL 51 units

In 2002, the author as Chief of the Standards Development Division under the Office of Programs and Standards (OPS) initiated a Study of the General Education Curriculum of 20 universities and colleges from five countries in Asia—Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong. The salient findings of the study were as follows:

1. Majority of the disciplinal programs offered by tertiary education institutions in these countries have integrated GEC during the first year only. The very few others have it in the first two years.

2. GEC were mostly focused on languages, Sciences and Mathematics and there were at most 18 to 36 units only of GEC in a bachelor’s degree

3. There were professional and specialized courses right in the first year.

Concluded on Friday September 11. –Felizardo Y. Francisco, Manila Times

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