PH not yet ready for three-year college education - expert
Metro Manila, Philippines - The country is not prepared to transition to a three-year college education as proposed by a senator, an expert said.
In an interview with NewsWatch Plus, Lizamarie Olegario, UP College of Education associate professor, said any changes to the college curriculum should be preceded by fixing the K-12 program.
On July 1, Sen. Win Gatchalian, who previously chaired the basic education committee in the 19th Congress, filed the “Three-Year College Education” bill, which aims to streamline the curriculum by focusing on specialized subjects.
The degree program will be “based on assessed industry needs, international standards, or benchmarks, and recognized best practices.”
“Although there are global models of three-year college systems like in Europe and Australia, they have strong consistent K-12 systems and tightly designed curricula. But the Philippines is still stabilizing its K-12 implementation. Thus we are not yet prepared for it,” said Olegario.
She noted that the competencies promised by the K-12 program have not been achieved.
In June, the Department of Education piloted the implementation of the revised senior high school (SHS) program in a bid to improve employability. The changes decongested the old curriculum by cutting down the 15 core subjects to five and introduced longer immersion hours.
Meanwhile, Olegario also opposed the bill’s provision to pull out general education (GE) courses from college and transfer these to the SHS curriculum.
She defended the need for these courses, saying these are not merely “filler subjects.”
“Ang general education courses primarily ay nagde-develop ng [These general education courses primarily develop] critical thinking, ethical reasoning, communication skills and civic awareness,” she said.
“Kasi lalo na kunyari yung mga [For example] writing, reasoning, research, collaboration. Multiple semesters ‘yan. Repetition is sometimes necessary,” Olegario added.
In a House inquiry in May, the Department of Education has suggested removing three GE courses in college, namely, Art Appreciation, The Contemporary World, and Ethics as these are covered in basic education.
The agency also noted that the five core subjects under the revised SHS program are already aligned with the other GE courses at the tertiary level.
The Second Congressional Commission on Education earlier reported that the current tertiary curriculum is heavy on GE subjects but falls short on providing internship training.
“As we speak ngayon binababa na ang GE subjects. Ang gusto lang namin through the bill bilisan yung pagbaba ng GE subjects at pareho across the board hindi iba sa public, iba sa private,” Gatchalian said on Tuesday.
[Translation: As we speak, the GE subjects are already being reduced. What we want through the bill is to speed up the reduction of GE subjects and to make it consistent across the board, not different for public and different for private schools.]
