The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has decided to suspend the pilot implementation of the proposed Reframed General Education Curriculum Component (RGECC) for Academic Year 2026–2027, moving the planned rollout to 2028. This decision comes after widespread opposition from educators, students, academic workers, and democratic sectors nationwide.
A Victory for Opposition
According to ACT Teachers Partylist Representative Antonio Tinio, the suspension is a concrete gain won through broad opposition. Faculty and students spoke up and organized against a neoliberal reframing that would cut General Education (GE) from 36 units to as low as 18, effectively erasing vital humanities and social science foundations.
Concerns Over Quality and Livelihoods
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. Tinio emphasized that 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.
Call for Genuine Consultation
CHED itself acknowledged stakeholders' concern that the 18-unit reframed curriculum puts institutions into a box and constrains academic freedom and institutional identity. Tinio stressed that the correct response is not to tweak the box but to abandon a framework that treats education primarily as market adaptability.
Legislative Action
The Makabayan bloc has filed House Resolution No. 999, seeking an urgent investigation into CHED's proposed RGECC. The resolution focuses on four key issues: the erasure of vital subjects that develop critical thinking, historical consciousness, and social responsibility; its market-driven, job-centric framework; the labor implications of eliminating half of mandatory courses; and CHED's lack of study and genuine consultation with affected stakeholders, including teachers and students.
Tinio vowed to push HR 999 and demand that CHED come clean on the studies, assumptions, and labor impact of the proposal. He called for guarantees of no faculty displacement, no reduction of the 36-unit GE framework, and the restoration of core subjects that strengthen nationalism, culture, and democratic participation.
Broader Implications
The weakening of Humanities and Social Sciences in college is worsened by parallel removals and compressions in the Senior High School curriculum, resulting in students from under-resourced schools being deprived of deep learning that GE should strengthen, not cut.
The fight will not stop at postponement. The General Education Movement calls for junking the RGECC, conducting genuine consultations nationwide, and defending a GE that serves the people and national development, not corporate demands.
