Come 2018 when the transition for
the implementation of the K-12 is completed, and colleges all over the country
will once again welcome freshmen enrollees – this time, from the first batch of
graduates of the K-12, a new general education (Gen Ed) curriculum will greet
them in their college class.
In preparation for SY 2018-2019,
teachers from higher education institutions (HEIs) from Region IX are being
trained to prepare to implement the new Gen Ed curriculum.
The Ateneo de Zamboanga
University, in coordination with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED),
kicked off the National General
Education Core Course Training 2.0 aka
NGECCT 2.O on May 8, 2017, at
the CDCH in the AdZU Salvador Campus in La Purisima, this city.
The activity is organized by the
School of Liberal Arts, under the deanship of Dr. Robert V. Panaguiton, Overall
Program Chairperson; with Jayson V. Sabdilon, Program Coordinator. It will be
spread out in three weeks/17 days of training til May 27, 2017.
The training comprises of five of
nine CHED-prescribed general education core courses including Ethics, Life and
Works of Rizal, Mathematics, Understanding the self, and Arts appreciation. The
other four subjects are on Readings in Philippine History, the Contemporary
World, Purposive Communication, Science, Technology and Society.
SJ, in his welcome address, emphasized the need for openness among teachers to
the transition to interdisciplinarity of higher education, as part of CHED’s
strategic direction. An open disposition, he said, would be very helpful in
welcoming the change in the curriculum and in “psyching” themselves for its implementation
in 2018, in order to ensure its success.
Dr. Panaguiton, oriented the
participants with an overview of the training, its objectives, history,
rationale and program specifications and logistics of the core courses. He reiterated
the need for a paradigm shift into Interdisciplinarity of Higher Education, in
order to form well-rounded and competent students, capable of coping with the
demands of a changing world through an orientation of liberal education. For
this, he said that, in order to produce competent students; first, there is a
need to train competent teachers.
program was CHED representative, Dr. Rodyy P. Garcia , who urged participants
to complete the 17-day training with 100% completion rate. He posed a 21st
century challenge to the participants: how to teach a new breed of millennials comprising
the pioneer batch of the K-12. He also commended AdZU for sponsoring and
facilitating the training, and congratulated the University for its recent success
in the Bar, with a 100% passing rate, and described AdZU’s graduate programs as
“the pride of higher education in the region”.
