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Issue No. 24                        July 29-August 4,  2001                    Quezon City, Philippines

“Globalizing” the UP general education program

By DANILO ARAÑA ARAO
Bulatlat.com

Definitely the first of its kind in the country! The administration of the University of the Philippines (UP) is planning to change the general education (GE) program so that students would be made to choose the subjects they want to take.

The general education program refers to the courses all college students of a particular school or university are required to take. The current GE program of UP consists of identified subjects totaling 42 units, divided into three domains --- i.e., Arts and Humanities (15 units), Social Sciences and Philosophy (15 units), and Natural Sciences and Mathematics (12 units).

Under the proposed Revitalized GE Program (RGEP), there will be a “semi-structured” system where students can choose 15 units of courses each in the fields of the three domains (Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences and Philosophy, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics), for a total of 45 units. The subjects they choose, however, should fulfill the prescribed GE Framework.

The latter lays down the requirements of the program and defines the character of the GE courses. They should satisfy at least two out of three objectives, one out of two modes of inquiry and develop two out of three competencies.

The GE Framework identifies the three objectives as broad intellectual and cultural horizon; nationalism balanced with internationalism; and awareness of various ways of knowing. The two modes of inquiry are quantitative and other forms of reasoning; and interpretive and aesthetic modes. The three competencies, meanwhile, are communication (oral and written); independent and critical thinking; and creative thinking.

In a statement, the UP chapter of the Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND-UP) strongly opposed the RGEP, arguing that nationalism becomes “optional” since it is relegated to only one of the three objectives. It becomes possible, under the plan, that students will finish the GE program without even understanding the importance of nationalism since the courses they chose fulfill the two other objectives.

CONTEND-UP also notes that the RGEP uses the language and rhetoric of globalization since market forces become the determinants of availability of courses. It adds that the plan, eventually, will force departments and colleges to compete with each other to catch the attention of students. CONTEND-UP stresses that there will be a situation where there will be “popular or fun” courses on one side and “serious or hard” courses on the other.

On the part of teachers, CONTEND-UP sees the scenario where they will choose their specialization according to what is “popular” and not what is necessary for nation-building and genuine development.

In his study, Prof. Ramon Guillermo of the UP College of Arts and Letters (CAL) stressed that the free market paradigm serves as the model for the UP administration’s RGEP.

He quoted the speech of former President Fidel Ramos during the World Congress on Higher Education in 1997 as saying that “education is increasingly being viewed as a commodity to be shaped according to consumer demand.” Ramos argues that “under this scenario, educators, just like businessmen, will have to be more flexible and overcome the structural rigidities of traditional institutions.”

Guillermo argues that the plan will allow each campus to do what it can do well or not at all. Following this logic, he said that “if there are no faculty members qualified to teach social science courses, in UP Los Baños, for example, then it might as well not include them at all as course offerings. Courses like `The Beautiful Symmetry of Crop Rotation’ or `Poetic Solitude in the Forestry Setting’ could instead be substituted for the requisite Humanities subjects.”

This, then, defeats the purpose of GE as a basic core of knowledge and skills. He says that instead of building up the competencies of faculties and campuses, the plan accepts these deficiencies as facts of life.

Guillermo stresses the need, therefore, to oppose the RGEP, especially at this time where UP “cannot afford to renege on its prerogative and duty...to perform its role as a social critic and agent of social change.” Bulatlat.com

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