MANILA — The Commission on Higher Education (CHED)on Wednesday said it welcomes the recent decision of the Supreme Court (SC), upholding the constitutionality of CHED’s Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 20 or the “General Education Curriculum Holistic Understandings, Intellectual and Civic Competencies,” which excluded the study of Filipino, Panitikan, and the Philippine Constitution as core subjects.
“The Commission will continue to uphold the rule of law, study the issues raised by education stakeholders and await the final decision of the Supreme Court,” the CHED said in a statement issued to the media.
The CHED also said it welcomes the action of groups opposing the SC decision in filing motions for reconsideration on the case.
“The CHED respects this decision and will wait for the Supreme Court to decide finally on the issue,” the CHED said.
The SC en banc recently promulgated its decision on Oct. 9, 2018, stating that under Section 13 of Republic Act 7722 or the law that created CHED, the Commission is authorized to determine the (a) minimum unit requirements for specific academic programs; (b) general education [GE] distribution requirements as may be determined by the Commission; and (c) specific professional subjects as may be stipulated by the various licensing entities.
The CHED said the High Court also ruled that study of Filipino, Panitikan and the Constitution are found in the basic education curriculum from Grades 1 to 10 and Senior High School pursuant to the K-12 Law.
The changes in the GE curriculum were implemented to ensure that there would be no duplication of subjects in Grades 1 to 10, Senior High School and College.
In the tertiary level, nothing in the stated laws require that Filipino and Panitikan must be included as subjects, and that the study of Filipino can easily be included as courses of study in the tertiary level, if higher education institutions decide to do so.
Hence, CMO No. 20 was found to be constitutional and did not violate any other laws, the CHED said, quoting the SC decision.
“The K to 12 Law was enacted in 2013 to enable basic education graduates to gain mastery of core competencies and skills. K to 12 graduates are expected to be university-ready. To be university-ready, graduates of the basic education curriculum should have taken Filipino, Panitikan and the Constitution. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) may enhance these competencies by including additional subjects in Filipino, Panitikan or integrate these into existing subjects in their curriculum,” the CHED said.
“CMO No. 20, Series of 2013 was issued on June 28, 2013. None of the current CHED commissioners were in office at that time and therefore were not privy to the context and discussions that were the basis for the CHED Memorandum,” it added. (PR)
