By Rep. Antonio Tinio
ACT Teachers Partylist
We welcome the Commission on Higher Education’s (Ched’s) decision to suspend the pilot implementation of the proposed Reframed General Education Curriculum Component (RGECC) for AY 2026–2027 and move the planned rollout to 2028. This is a concrete gain won through broad opposition from educators, students, academic workers, and democratic sectors nationwide.
This is a clear victory for faculty and students who spoke up and organized against a neoliberal ‘reframing’ that would cut GE from 36 units to as low as 18 and effectively erase vital humanities and social science foundations. But delay is not the solution. Ched must junk the RGECC framework and start over through genuine, democratic consultations.
The proposed reduction and restructuring threaten both the quality of higher education and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of faculty members, particularly contractual, part-time, and non-tenured teachers whose loads and employment depend on required GE offerings.
A market-driven, job-centric GE framework will produce graduates trained to comply, not citizens prepared to think critically, defend rights, and understand history and society. General Education must build historical consciousness, ethical reasoning, and scientific and social inquiry—not reduce education into technocratic packaging for labor export.
Ched itself acknowledged stakeholders’ concern that the 18-unit reframed curriculum puts institutions “into a box” and constrains academic freedom and institutional identity. The correct response is not to tweak the box, but to abandon a framework that treats education primarily as market adaptability.
The Makabayan bloc has already filed House Resolution No. 999 seeking an urgent investigation, in aid of legislation, into Ched’s proposed RGECC for (1) the erasure of vital subjects that develop critical thinking, historical consciousness, and social responsibility; (2) its market-driven, job-centric framework; (3) the labor implications of eliminating half of mandatory courses; and (4) Ched’s lack of study and genuine consultation with affected stakeholders, including teachers and students.
We will push HR 999 and demand that Ched come clean on the studies, assumptions, and labor impact of this proposal. Ched must guarantee no faculty displacement, no reduction of the 36-unit GE framework, and the restoration of core subjects that strengthen nationalism, culture, and democratic participation.
Weakening Humanities and Social Sciences in college is worsened by parallel removals and compressions in the Senior High School curriculum, resulting in students—especially from under-resourced schools—being deprived of deep learning that GE should strengthen, not cut.
This fight will not stop at postponement. We support the General Education Movement’s call to junk the RGECC, conduct genuine consultations nationwide, and defend a GE that serves the people and national development—not corporate demands.
