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Statement of the SES expressing its opposition to the proposal to remove Ethics in the GE Curriculum

 

We, members of the Board of Directors of the Social Ethics Society, express our strong opposition to the proposal to remove ethics in college. Such move is bereft of merit and is ignorant as to the value and purpose of the teaching of the course, which is thoroughly rooted in the integral and critical function of higher education. The proposal to transfer it to Senior High School deprives college students of the teaching of ethics as a professional course, which is crucial in their civic engagements and the pursuit of a democratic society that can only be grounded in responsible citizenship and critical thinking. 

The direction of Edcom and its advisers from the technical panels of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) reduces our whole education system into a mode of creating docile workers who will constitute the labor force that will serve the whims and interests of a capital intensive and consumer driven globalized neoliberal economic order. It only breeds our subservience to a colonial past that has denied our people their basic sense of dignity and authentic freedom. Education is meant to make us better humans, not tools in a capitalist world controlled by the rich and powerful. 

Ethics requires maturity. Our Senior High School students are not predisposed into learning the ethical theories and their application. The technical panel only sees ethics from the vantage point of a Manila based academic but ignores the context and content of the course which is framed based on the experiences of our communities, taking into consideration our attachments to local history, culture, and religion. Edcom 2, for whatever its worth, reduces the meaning of the good life into something mechanical and economic. 

Indeed, this move of our education policy makers violates our democratic rights. Not a single Mindanao-based ethics teacher or philosophical association has been consulted on the matter. If any, consultations are a mere formality intended to legitimize their dubious motives. Edcom relies on the advice of some 'elite' academics or so called experts who do not have an idea as to the actual relevance of the teaching of ethics in college across a broad spectrum. Such an actuation on their part is simply demeaning and disregards the contribution of the esteemed ethics scholars in the country who have helped shape its moral and philosophical traditions. 

At this very crucial time of overt corruption in the government offices, the value and relevance of the Ethics subject do not need much explanation to be understood. The motion to remove the Ethics subject from the college curriculum is nothing short of capricious. In the case of the Bangsamoro region, ethics empower students to aspire for a strong moral compass that will guide future leaders to the right direction. Good governance requires ethical competence and a basic understanding of the ground and norms of morality, one that the late Ramon C. Reyes no less emphasized. 

The proposal to remove ethics in college is in danger of risking the future of this country based on the biased opinions of a few individuals whose experiences are nothing compared to the issues and realities that ethics teachers in Mindanao have dealt with. The teaching of ethics is not a burden. It actually enhances what we offer to our students in terms of how they are supposed to value their human freedom and that they must not be dictated by the delusions of a select few who wrongly believe that they exclusively know and can decide what is good for this country. 

Dr. Godiva Eviota-Rivera 

Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc

Dr. Ian Clark Parcon 

Prof. Menelito Mansueto

Dr. Rogelio Bayod 

(Board of Directors, Social Ethics Society) 

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