CHED to implement new curriculum

STARTING next year, the Commission on Higher Education ( CHED) will implement the new general education curriculum ( GEC) which shortens some college courses by a year.

Prospero “Popoy” de Vera, CHED officer- in- charge, said CHED Memorandum Order 20, series of 2013 otherwise known as “General Education Curriculum: Holistic Understandings, Intellectual and Civic Competencies” has been signed by the technical panel, and will be implemented starting academic year 2018- 2019 with the aim of ensuring that there is no duplication of subjects between basic and higher education.

“We will implement the new general education curriculum start- ing in June this year,” de Vera told The Manila Times in an interview in Greenhills, San Juan City.

The new general education curriculum has been aligned with the advanced subjects now to be taken in Senior High School ( Grades 11 and 12).

“The general education curriculum has been reduced from 63 units to 36 units because a lot of subjects are now on Senior High School,” De Vera said, adding that the new curriculum focuses on the skills that are needed in the university level.

The new curriculum is aligned with the K- to- 12 [ Kindergarten to Grade 12] program, the Philippine and the ASEAN Qualifications Framework ( AQF). It is also outcomes- based as it prepares students to become job- ready when they graduate.

Under the new curriculum, and nursing will be reduced to four years while four- year arts and sciences programs will remain at four years.

The CHED, however, said that private universities and colleges will have the autonomy and academic freedom if they will add more subjects.