‘Remove GE subjects to solve K-12 woes’

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) should remove general education subjects from college within five years or sooner instead of just transferring three subjects back to high school, an administration lawmaker proposed.

“I dare the CHED to have the courage and wisdom to do what is right to make college students competent in their chosen specializations and professions,” House committee on government reorganization chair and Bukidnon 2nd district Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores said in a statement.

Flores urged CHED to “show courage” to “phase out college GE” and “phase in specialized subjects.”

He pointed out that by “phasing out GEC, CHED can create the credit space needed for more internship days, at least 90 to 120 workdays of internship, and offer more specialized subjects and electives.”

Flores noted that “transferring only three GEC subjects to high schools is weak.”

“The GEC must be phased out, even for the humanities and social sciences, which also need credit space for specialization subjects,” he said.

“College GECs are remedial courses and are replays of high school. Those GEC subjects are still there now because colleges and universities do not trust the learning foundations of high school graduates,” Flores added.

He further suggested that college GEC faculty “can be transferred to senior high schools or stay in colleges to do basic research and outreach.”

Flores’ pronouncements came in the wake of reports about the removal of K-12 program.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian raised fears that scrapping the K-12 program altogether could lead to bigger problems such as higher youth unemployment, among many others.

Rather than abolish senior high school, Gatchalian proposed trimming the duration of college education, pointing out that many general education subjects taught in college are repeated from SHS, wasting students’ time and resources.