DepEd suggests removing 3 general education subjects from college curriculum

Three general education courses—art appreciation, contemporary world, and ethics—should be removed from the college curriculum and added to the high school program, according to an official of the Department of Education (DepEd) on Wednesday.

“We have five [subjects]...meaning 15 units out of the 50 existing units of General Education, which are already integrated in senior high school [curriculum]. That 15 units will increase with these three courses [which is three units each]: art appreciation, contemporary world and ethics,” DepEd Assistant Secretary Janir Datukan told a hearing of the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture on the revised senior high school (SHS) curriculum.

“The DepEd has mapped it out and I have also reviewed and found out that these are included in subjects taken by Grades 7 to 12. We don’t want a duplication. So, when we add them up, there will be 24 units less in college which is already equivalent to one semester,” he added.

DepEd's presentation before the House panel stated that the art appreciation can be found in the arts subject, contemporary world can be included in Araling Panlipunan, and ethics is a topic under the Good Manners and Right Conduct and Values Education.

The five core subjects that will be covered in the revised SHS curriculum are as follows:

• Effective Communication (Mabisang Komunikasyon)
• Life Skills
• General Mathematics
• General Science
• Pag-aaral ng Kasaysayan at Lipunang Pilipino

All these core subjects will be taken up in Grade 11, since Grade 12 will be exclusively for taking up electives or a set of subjects relevant to the cluster that the student chose to take.

The electives are divided into two clusters: Academic and TechPro clusters.

The Academic cluster for those who seek to pursue college education includes the following electives:

• Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
• Business and Entrepreneurship
• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
• Sports, Health and Wellness 
• Field Experience

The TechPro cluster for those who seek immediate employment offers the following electives:

• Agriculture and Fishery Arts
• Information and Communications Technology
• Family and Consumer Science
• Industrial Arts
• Maritime
• Work Immersion

The revised SHS curriculum, which will be piloted in the School Year 2025–2026, gives students the freedom to choose elective courses that they believe will improve their application for college admission or prepare them for employment following SHS.

However, Marikina Representative Stella Quimbo, a former economics professor at UP Diliman, voiced concerns about the plan. 

“For example, if I am a STEM [student under Academic] cluster, it is actually possible for me to avoid trigonometry under the new curriculum. But under the current set up, as a STEM student, trigonometry is already mandatory. So, when I reach college, I can skip trigonometry and proceed to a higher Math [subject],” Quimbo said.

“With the new curriculum, you may actually avoid all the math subjects in STEM and just choose science electives. In that situation, colleges might have to revert to the pre-K-12 curriculum. To begin with, they (colleges) have already changed their curriculum keeping in mind that the SHS curriculum already has fixed subjects which can substitute for general education subjects in college,” she added.

In response, Datukan stated that guidance counselors can assist in handling such situations.

“We're strengthening our guidance counseling program to exactly avoid that kind of incident where a student can just take whatever [he or she likes],” Datukan said.

But Quimbo said guidance counselors can only recommend courses to students, not force them to enroll in them.

“I don't think it's just that. Even if the guidance counselor will say, don't do this but do that...and not all schools have guidance counselors, and we don’t have enough guidance counselors. Hindi [rin] required yung bata na makinig doon sa counselor. Persuasive [advise] lang naman po ‘yun,’ Quimbo said.

“I don't think the guidance counselor can solve that,” she added.  — VBL, GMA Integrated News