CHED postpones pilot test of reframed GE after coming under fire

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) will not conduct pilot testing of the proposed reframed general education (GE) curriculum in 2026 as it vowed to review more comments from stakeholders.

The announcement came a day after teachers, students, and advocacy groups filed a consolidated petition and separate position papers asking CHED not to proceed with its proposal to reduce GE units to 18 from the current 36.

CHED Chairperson Shirley Agrupis, in a press conference on Wednesday evening, May 13, said the pilot implementation of the overhauled GE curriculum will be moved to 2028 instead.

“This is to give us time…to analyze and study well the different manifestations because we understand where they are coming from,” Agrupis said.

The decision was the result of the meeting between CHED, the Department of Education, Second Congressional Commission on Education, and Teacher Education Council on Wednesday afternoon. 

The four government bodies also decided to create an inter-agency technical working group to examine the position papers this year. They are open to receiving more submissions until June 15.

As of now, over 250 higher education institutions have submitted their stances. Agrupis said many of the demands are “worth considering.”

She acknowledged that critics have questioned the bid of the CHED Technical Panel for General Education to lump together Philippine history with the Rizal course, and to remove ethics as a stand-alone subject in the reframed curriculum.

Edizon Fermin, who leads the technical panel, also explained why they initially proposed launching the pilot testing in school year 2026-2027, which begins in August.

“We thought it was propitious that we try it out do‘n sa ilalabas na teacher education curriculum. So parang dalawa po ‘yung pagkakataon na hinahabol ng CHED: Makita ‘yung posibilidad to reframe GE at the same time we are reframing teacher education,” Fermin said. 

(We thought it was propitious that we try it out along with the reframed teacher education curriculum. So CHED was eyeing two opportunities: To see the possibility of reframing GE at the same time we are reframing teacher education.)

In 2018, CHED cut GE units from 60 to 36 following the implementation of the K to 12 program in the country. – Rappler.com