Ched to keep Filipino in curriculum

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has ordered the retention of Filipino subjects in the new general education curriculum to be implemented in 2018.

Commissioner Prospero De Vera III said the order was in a new memorandum that was issued on Tuesday after a meeting with Filipino language advocates on Monday.

“When the commission approved the [policies, standards and guidelines] for the new courses starting academic year 2018, Filipino was somewhat forgotten,” De Vera told reporters.

“We are thankful for the groups who told us that there was a mistake in taking it out,” he said.

De Vera said the new memorandum was in compliance with the Supreme Court’s order stopping the exclusion of Filipino subjects from the general curriculum.

“We had a meeting with the groups that are protesting and the commission has already issued a new memorandum instructing that all degree programs must retain the Filipino requirement, ” he added.

The high court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) after CHEd decided to take out six to nine units of Filipino from the general curriculum of colleges and universities in 2013.

“This was in light really of internationalization, the idea that the advantage of Filipinos in the use of English should be given priority by government and also in anticipation eventually of the K-12 program,” De Vera said.

“The thinking [was] that Filipino can be downloaded to senior high so you don’t have to take it at the university level. That was the thinking then,” he added.

But in 2015, the Supreme Court issued a TRO stopping CHEd from implementing the new policy.

CHEd is crafting a new general education curriculum to be implemented in 2018, the year when the first batch of senior high school students (Grade 12) under the K-12 program will graduate.

“The commission is already issuing a circular that we will observe the restraining order of the Supreme Court. It’s still six to nine units of Filipino,” De Vera said.

“As long as the Supreme Court has not [lifted] the TRO, then it’s still part of the curriculum,” he added.