‘Removal’ of Filipino teachers from new general education curriculum

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

This piece is for teachers affected by the new General Education Curriculum. Recently, two main points were raised about the new 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 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 has approved public consultations on the new recommendation of the GE Technical Panel that at least nine units of GE courses must be taught in Filipino, with the choice of courses left to colleges and universities. After consultations are completed, the technical panel will present the findings to the Commission, for final action.

CHED chairperson Patricia Licuanan, said with regard to 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.

According to Licuanan, 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, she said, 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 disciplinal (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.

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 public consultations 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 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 displacement of Filipino, Math, Psychology and other former GE faculty are two entirely distinct matters and should be addressed accordingly, Licuanan said.

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 are remedies 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, has a technical working group studying challenges posed by the transition to K12 and is working out alternative solutions with the help of DepEd, DOLE and other concerned agencies.