By next semester, mile-long lines on registration day at the University of the Philippines may soon become a thing of the past. No more standing in line for at least two hours just to get enlisted in the Social Science introductory course. Next semester, the Revitalized General Education Program will be implemented. Last December 12, the University Council, the highest policy-making body in UP, approved the RGEP by a vote of 248 to 105. Despite strong opposition from students and faculty, the UC, composed of tenured professors, gave the decision after a four-hour deliberation.

University of Pili

The RGEP is described by the UP administration as a "semi-structured, learner-customized' program. Under the RGEP, students are free to choose from among the general education courses as long as they take 45 units. Students may choose subjects from the Social Sciences cluster, Arts and Humanities cluster, and Natural Science and Math cluster, while they have to take six units of Philippine Studies courses from any of the clusters. In the present GE program, students must take 42 units of courses from the same clusters, but the subjects are prescribed in the course checklist. This means that all UP undergraduate students, whatever the course, take the same 42 units. Failure to take these "prescribed" subjects would jeopardize their graduation. Despite the differences, the RGEP stands for the same objectives the current GE program aspires for: "to broaden intellectual and cultural horizons of students; to foster a commitment to nationalism balanced with internationalism; and to develop awareness in various ways of knowing." The RGEP will apply to all incoming freshmen next semester. Those who fail to reach the cut-off grade in the UP College Admission Test (UPCAT) English and Math sub-tests have to take the Summer Bridge Program, a pass-fail course that will supplement their weaknesses in the said areas. UP professors will handle these intensive classes. Only students who pass the program can enroll as freshmen. Undergraduate students who are still completing their required GE course have the option of taking the new program. The subjects they have finished will be credited, but they have to take the additional three units under the RGEP. Meanwhile, general education courses taken by transfer students in their former schools will also be credited in the new program.

GE Courses

The Road to RGEP

The RGEP was proposed by UP officials to improve the current GE program, which was implemented in 1986. UP adopted the core-course program in 1959. In the '60s it became an elective system that allowed students to choose the courses they wanted to take. Because the program restricted any scientific evaluation to measure its efficiency, the current GE program was designed. From 1990 to 2000, UP professors and officials tried to improve the program's lapses in implementation. But Nemenzo had something else in mind: the RGEP. Nemenzo formed the GE council in the summer of 2001 to plan the revitalized program within the current GE framework. The council, with no student representation, drafted the program as patterned after the general education program of Portland State University in the United States. The council then presented the framework to the different UP units. In July, the University Council of UP Los Baños approved the framework. UP Visayas did the same in August.

Barraged by Oppositions

When the idea of GE reformatting was introduced by the GE Council to the different UP units, students and professors did not give the RGEP a red-carpet treatment. "There was no genuine consultation in the different UP units. The process wasn't democratic since there is no student representation in the GE council. There was also no systemwide convention on the RGEP," Diliman University Student Council Chairperson Nova Navo said. Now that the RGEP is already approved, Navo, who is also a member of the anti-RGEP UP General Education Movement (UP-GEM), said that the next step was to "recall the votes." Navo added that the approval of the RGEP framework was a divide and conquer tactic. UPLB and UPV approved the program earlier than did UPD. Navo said that since the General Education is a systemwide program, it should have been approved by the whole system at the same time.

RGEP critics commented that with the program, education will become a free market and will be profit-driven. Students will choose subjects to their convenience: those with shorter lines of registrants during enlistment, those with "generous" and "fun" professors. Other professors will then think of ways to "sell" their subjects in the competitive market. An issue related to this is the question of employment. Since students will be free to choose the subjects they would take, and since senior professors are going to handle GE subjects, it is likely that other teachers, particularly the junior faculty, would be underloaded. These new professors, whom Nemenzo described in his inaugural address in March 2000 as "new faculty recruits who, no matter how bright, lack understanding of the philosophy of General Education," may eventually lose their jobs. The Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy of UP (CONTEND-UP), in its discussion paper "Nationalism Optional" written by Filipino Professor Ramon Guillermo, said that "…among the first victims of this profit-driven education would be courses revolving around the ideal of nationalism, courses which we have fought for, tooth and nail, to include in the GE curriculum." Guillermo said that the program is rather directed toward globalization. Regarding this, Nemenzo said in a Philippine Collegian report, "I would like UP students to defend their nationalistic interests by arming them with knowledge of the issues confronting them that are not part of the present program." Critics look at the RGEP as part of compensating the budget problems the UP system is facing. The Congress recently approved the UP budget, at P5.5 billion for the next academic year. Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also ordered the freeze of 20 percent of the budget of all government agencies, including UP. Navo said that the implementation of the RGEP can reduce costs for the university in terms of the use of technical facilities. If less students would take Communication 3, the cost in the use of audio-visual and multi-media equipment would be reduced as well. On other hand CONTEND-UP argued that the RGEP can even worsen UP's budget problems. For instance, if there will be a great demand for certain subjects which lack qualified teachers, the need to hire new professors may arise. To afford this, the university, may resort to seeking financial help from private corporations. The problem with this is that the output of students, including research papers and other works, would be owned by the corporations as payment for their financial support. The issue of commercialization is dragged along by the RGEP, since the implementation of the program at such a meager budget is virtually impossible. Guillermo, in the Katipunan ng mga Sangguniang Mag-Aaral sa UP (KASAMA sa UP) Congress held in Davao last October, said that the RGEP is against the essence of general education, which is to relate a student's specialization to the general context to enable him to apply his specialty in public service. With the RGEP, the value of a UP education becomes a mere rhetoric, for the very quality of "UP learning" becomes difficult to distinguish. In this case, where pluralism and freedom are taken as synonyms, "tatak UP" will vanish, just like the long lines that lead to Social Science 1 enlistment rooms at registration day.

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