Education experts are calling on the government to fix basic education first before moving forward with the three-year college proposal. According to the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations or Cocopea, students will not be prepared for the job if college education is shortened.
Cocopea's legal counsel, Joseph Noel Estrada, said in an interview with dzBB that members of their organization were surprised by the sudden proposal. He said the problem was still focused on Senior High School (SHS) and K-12, so it's surprising that there's another new idea.
“SHS graduates are not ready for college, what if the number of years in college is reduced?” Estrada said. He added that the proposal needs to be studied before it is implemented.
Estrada insisted that the SHS curriculum should first be revised before including general education subjects that are usually taught in college.
The proposal comes from Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, which would transfer some general education subjects to SHS to make college only 3 years. But for Cocopea, this is not the right time for change.
