Philippine Educational Reform in the International Milieu

Isagani R. CruzChair, CHED Technical Panel

on General Education

0919-976-3185

Traditionally continental European schools offered a long first degree (five years or more in duration) that resulted in graduates having a degree at approximately the same level as an Anglo-American Master degree. What the Bologna Accord does, however, is split the traditional European first, long-cycle, degree into two components: the Bachelor degree and the Master degree.

“The Presidential Task Force on Education headed by Jesuit educator Father Bienvenido Nebres has come out with the Main Education Highway towards a Knowledge-Based Economy. It envisions seamless education from basic to vocational school or college.”

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s 2009 State of the Nation Address, July 27, 2009

“For college admission, the Task Force recommends mandatory Scholastic Aptitude Tests.… For professions seeking international recognition -- engineering, architecture, accountancy, pharmacy and physical therapy -- the Task Force recommends radical reform: 10 years of basic education, 2 years of pre-university before 3 years of university.”

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s 2009 State of the Nation Address, July 27, 2009

EDUCATION HIGHWAY

ELEMENTARY = 7 years (DepEd)

SECONDARY = 5 years (DepEd)

UNIVERSITY = 4+ years (CHED)

EDUCATION HIGHWAY

ELEMENTARY = 6 years (DepEd)

SECONDARY = 4 years (DepEd)

UNIVERSITY = 5+ years (CHED)

EDUCATION HIGHWAY

ELEMENTARY = 6 years (DepEd)

SECONDARY = 4 years (DepEd)

POLYTECHNIC= 1-3 years

(TESDA)

PRE-UNIVERSITY = 2 years

(CHED)

UNIVERSITY = 3+ years (CHED)

PRE-UNIVERSITY

REVISED GENERAL

EDUCATION

• Arts & Humanities

• Math & Natural Sciences

• Social Sciences

• Integrating Courses

English FilipinoMath Science

MAJOR COURSESInternational AgreementsCHED Technical Panels

What Shall Your HEI Emphasize?

To follow the market?• Teaching &

Community Service• Employability• Harper Adams

University College (96%), Harvard (94%)

• Status Quo

To create a market?• Research

• Entrepreneurship• Stanford, USC,

Pennsylvania, Duke

• Change / Innovation

Higher education institutions, through their core functions (research, teaching and service to the community) carried out in the context of institutional autonomy and academic freedom, should increase their interdisciplinary focus and promote critical thinking and active citizenship.

This would contribute to sustainable development, peace, wellbeing and the realization of human rights, including gender equity.

Higher education must not only give solid skills for the present and future world but must also contribute to the education of ethical citizens committed to the construction of peace, the defense of human rights, and the values of democracy.

Greater emphasis on the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, as well as Social and Human Sciences, is vital for all our societies.

Quality criteria must reflect the overall objectives of higher education, notably the aim of cultivating in students critical and independent thought and the capacity of learning throughout life. They should encourage innovation and diversity.

A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective function of his or her group and community and also for enabling him or her to continue to use reading, writing, and calculation for his or her own and the community's development.

Functional Literacy

Functional literacy is the ability to communicate effectively, to solve problems scientifically, to think critically and creatively, to use resources sustainably and to be productive, to develop one’s sense of community and to expand one’s world view.

Functional Literacy

Cultural literacy is the ability to be informed by beliefs and behaviors that have been shared from one generation to another in an oral or written form. Cultural literacy can create a knowledge and awareness that brings distinct commitment to social justice, responsibility to defend human dignity, and respect for cultures and languages associated with different nations and lifestyles.

Cultural Literacy

Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity. Scientific literacy entails being able to read with understanding articles about science in the popular press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions.

Scientific Literacy

Information literacy should be conceived as a new liberal art that extends from knowing how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure, and its social, cultural, and even philosophical context and impact.

Information Literacy

Visual Literacy

Visual literacy is the ability to evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual representations. Students should learn how to appreciatively but critically view or “read” visual materials, such as print ads, posters, billboards, movies, television shows, websites, paintings, sculptures, and buildings, particularly those within their own communities and regions.

Human literacies are multiple and varied, interdependent and equivalent, related and necessary. No single system for representing thought is powerful enough to explain all of our thoughts. Emotion and information require a range of marks. We need to be able to draw and write and compute and sing our ideas.

Multiple Literacies

By the end of the two years, every student should:

1. Have explored different ways of knowing self, society, nature, and the world;

2. Be able to communicate orally and in writing;3. Be able to reason logically and quantitatively;4. Be able analytically and critically to solve problems

individually and cooperatively;5. Be ready for good citizenship and social responsibility

for Philippine society and the world; and6. Display functional, cultural, scientific, information,

and other (multiple) literacies.

GENERAL EDUCATION COURSES

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