I’m not sure I’ll agree with a University of Baguio official’s proposal to scrap Rizal courses in college but I definitely agree with the proposal to scrap Physical Education. Seriously, I don’t see the relevance of PE as a general education subject. If someone wants to major in PE, then that’s well and good. But to require everyone to take PE courses is just a waste of time and resources.

I actually have a friend from our part of the world who refused to take PE in college. Well, she eventually took the PE classes but she was on her early 30s when she graduated. Eh paano ba naman pinadadamit ng leotard sa kanilang Rhythmics class? Tapos sasayaw pa sila sa Foundation Day?

School officials seek removal of PE, Rizal courses
PDI/Vincent Cabreza

BAGUIO CITY – Officials of colleges and universities in northern Luzon have asked the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to finally drop general subjects like physical education (PE) and courses on national hero Dr. Jose Rizal from their curriculum to make way for specialized subjects.

Veronica Garcia, vice president for academic affairs of the University of Baguio, raised the proposal during a consultation on Friday.

She said this rationalizes college education by removing subjects that students have taken in grade school and high school.

Garcia said keeping university curricula lean during times of economic crisis would reduce a student’s course load as well as his or her tuition expenses.

But Dr. William Medrano, CHEd executive secretary, said changing the curriculum would take too much effort because it will require new legislation.

“These are GE [general education] courses that are legislated… It would be difficult to ignore them. We have to include Rizal [subjects] as mandated by the Constitution… (If we remove them from the curriculum, that would take a tedious process because) we will have to go to Congress,” he said.

Medrano said CHEd still believes there is value to these GE subjects because these serve to “cultivate the value of patriotism.”

The conference was hosted by the University of the Cordilleras, which is now led by former Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus.

De Jesus, UC president, did not attend the forum.

But he told the Inquirer in an earlier interview that the cost of college education continues to grow because of the need to add basic remedial courses for freshmen who have inadequate basic education backgrounds.