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| "The Revitalized General Education Program will replace the current GE program in the University of the Philippines." |
| I have been hearing about this issue on RGEP since last semester. But, I didn't mind what it was all about. Anyway, the GE program would still be the same (and so I thought) and I never understood how it would work. All I knew was that it was going to replace the current GE program and students would have the freedom to choose on the subjects they opted to take. I bet most UP students are also unaware of the provisions on the RGEP as well as I do. |
| Then came the day that the University Council members approved the RGEP last December 12 on a 248 to 105 vote. I had the chance to witness what happened after the meeting was finished outside the College of Music Building where the Council had their meeting. Students against RGEP was there pouring their sentiments regarding the issue. Sad, disappointed faces could be pictured from the faculty members whom I saw coming out of the building. I guessed they were on the opposition side. |
| After what I have witnessed, I began to think of the implications of RGEP. It's not too late to understand the issue behind the RGEP besides the University Council has said that there's no certain date for it's approval and there would still be discussions regarding the issue even after the approval.
Let's take a fast track of the history of the General Education program. |
| The General Education (GE) Program was first introduced by UP President Vicente Sinco to incoming UP freshmen on June 8, 1958. He believed that UP students must be provided with the fundamental intellectual equipment necessary to understand their "place and purpose in our society", to liberate the mind from "bigotry" and prejudice and to encourage new ideas and innovations that are "products of serious scholarship and hard mental effort." The first basic general education program in the College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Business Administration was approved by the University Council on June 21, 1958. The GE program then prescribed a total of 63 units. |
| The objectives of the 1960 Basic General Education Program were: the development of the ability to write and speak English effectively and to read wit understanding materials of some complexity; the development to think critically; an understanding of the present status and past history of the culture and society of which the student is a part; an understanding of the nature of sciences as an intellectual process and the cultivation of the proper sense of values. |
| The curriculum was then refined after two years of its first implementation as departments instituted new GE courses and selected the core faculty who would handle pilot classes. |
| In 1986, just before the February revolution came the birth of a new GE program. Compare from the 1960 objectives, the 1986 GE program objectives were influenced by the time of the martial law wherein the ousted dictator had done damage to the country's moral fiber. |
| The 1986 objectives were: to foster a commitment to nationalism and development and develop a sense of nationhood balanced by a sense of internationalism; the stress on cultivating the capacity for independent, critical, and creative thinking; to infuse a passion for learning with a high sense of moral and intellectual integrity. It also consists of the objective of helping the students acquire basic skills in mathematics, reasoning and communication; develop awareness and understanding of various disciplines and develop the ability to integrate or adapt the knowledge and skills acquired in the various disciplines. |
| The 1986 GE curriculum reduced the number of units allocated to languages and the humanities from 27 units to 15 and increased the number of units allocated to the social sciences from 6 to 15. |
| So, we can see that even in the first implementation of the GE program, revisions had already been done on trying to improve the curriculum and that will be beneficial to the students. |
| Now, what is the Revitalized General Education Program better known as RGEP? |
| The RGEP is a modification of the previous GE program. It is the result of a study made by the General Education Council of previous reviews of the program. It was on July 2000 that President Nemenzo had reconstituted the GE Council and had asked it to propose measures that would revitalize the GE program. |
| The proposed framework of the RGEP includes the freedom of the students to choose the courses that they want to take and what they think is relevant to their field of study. Students will be required to take 15 units in each domain of knowledge (natural sciences, social science and humanities) which are designed as GE. |
| The issue on RGEP has raised a lot of critiques from the oppositions, some members of the faculty and of course from the students who expressed their concerns on the effect of the RGEP to students and to the kind of education UP students will be rendered. |
| With the implementation of the RGEP, students will be free to choose subjects they want to take. While it is liberating to think that students will have more freedom, it is more frightening on the other hand that students' intellectual gain would decrease. Students would likely take subjects that interest them or that they're familiar of for reasons such as it would be easy for them if they are going to take subjects that they would readily understand. But isn't it that institutions that educate people should inculcate and impose to students what they need to know. It is for students to be more aware of their surroundings, to be more critical and gain more knowledge through the various disciplines they are exposed to. |
| Who will be affected if the RGEP will be implemented? Well, the students will benefit of course, they could have the freedom to choose (that is if they choose wisely) the subjects they feel are important to them. |
| So, what happens to those courses that students choose less or not even? Simple, they get dissolved even if they are important. The most affected in this case will be the teachers, the junior faculty specifically, handling those subjects. Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Serena Diokno said that fewer instructors will be needed once the RGEP is implemented. There it goes, it's really sad news to some professors. Well, they will become the additional unemployed persons in the country! |
| Students' reactions vary on the approval on the RGEP in UP Diliman. |
| "Sa totoo, gusto ko ang RGEP kasi we will have the freedom to choose kung anong gusto nating subjects. The problem is the plight of many professors. Kawawa naman ang ibang professors," said Chris who is more concerned with the professors. |
| How come students are more concerned with the professors when some professors don't even care on the kind of education students will acquire? |
| "A bit happy but yet very sad. Happy, because the students could get to choose the subjects that they like but what happens to those subjects that are not in demand?," exclaimed another junior Political Science major. |
| Others said they are not affected since they are done with their GE courses. But, are we really not affected? Maybe true to those who are done with their GE. But how about the incoming students of UP? How unlucky they are for they will be deprived of the privilege we who have taken the previous GE curriculum have benefited from. |
| I think of my two other siblings who would probably enter UP too. They wouldn't be taking the same subjects I had taken. We couldn't talk about the same things and experiences encountered on a particular course since they would be taking subjects different from what I have taken. We would think of education in UP differently. |
| Now that the RGEP has been approved, what do we do? I think it is about time that students take an active part in participating on issues like this. After all, it is us students who will either benefit or suffer. |