MANILA, Philippines - A number of four-year college courses will be reduced by one year once the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) implements the revised General Education Curriculum of baccalaureate programs.

CHED chair Patricia Licuanan said that the Commission’s Technical Panel on General Education (TPGE) approved proposals to reduce the General Education curriculum from two years to one year in line with the implementation of the K to 12 program.

“The GE curriculum has been reduced in half. From two years it has become the equivalent of one year. Yes, it’s approved already. I’m not sure if the CMO (CHED Memorandum Order) is out,” Licuanan said.

The General Education Curriculum would be reduced because the general subjects taught in the first two years in college would be taught to senior high school students in the K to 12 program, which would be fully implemented in 2016.

The K to 12 program adds two more years to the current 10-year basic education program. It introduces pre-college levels of junior and senior high school.

Licuanan said the technical panel and committees representing various disciplines have discussed what to do with their respective curricula.

“I personally say that there are some courses that could be three years,” Licuanan said, adding that the technical panel is likely to come up with the decision by middle of school year 2013-2014.

“We have the list of common subjects. A number of them are new courses in the sense that they are more interdisciplinary. We are not just choosing from the existing ones,” she said.

“For some things it doesn’t need to be a four-year college course. There are many things, many skills that can be developed through shorter programs for middle level skills training in TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) for instance,” the CHED chief added.