Yes, slashing minor subjects to give more time to major subjects. Minor subjects like Music, Arts, Health, P.E., Araling Panlipunan or Sibika and what have you. That has been my gripe back since my first year college days. Why do these students need to study a couple of more years and spend more than their parents could earn if the higher ups in the government could just slash unproductive subjects that either have potatoes for teachers or garbage for books?
Take for example the subjects Music and Arts. Back then when I was in high school, I never applied the staff or the G-clef or the whole and half-notes in real-life, only in Music class. And to think that I learned all the music that I needed in my life all by myself. I'm excellent at playing the guitar and I manage to play passable piano. What about the Arts subject? Heck, I can't even remember any Arts from my secondary years! Not that I'm dumb. Its just that the subject is totally impractical and irrelevant in our society today.
Its true that people should still pay tribute to our nation's past. But we don't need all students to learn and know it. For what, high school quizzes that hardly matter at all when you start working at age 21? Hell, you don't need Lapu-Lapu or Marcelo del Pilar when taking a job exam. What you need are number abilities, English skills and analytical thinking. Studying Music or Arts or P.E. or Araling Panlipunan won't help you in those three departments.
How are we going to preserve our history then? Well, let's leave all the history that needs preserving to those who heed the calling - by that I mean the people who decide that they want to be historians or archivists as their jobs. It's simply like what happens to priests. No matter what priests achieve in life, when they are called by God, they become men of God. So, let people that are called by Philippine history be men of history.
Imagine if you slash those three subjects alone. You would save two to three hours of extra time, extra time that could be used for more English or more math or more contemporary science. Note that I used the word contemporary because more often than not, elementary and high school teachers are relying on obsolete books and obsolete information that dates back to the time of Archimedes. Also sometimes they teach the most basic of things, like what magma is or what red blood cells are. You'd pick up more information watching Discovery Channel than staying at school listening to obsolete science.
The problem is, everyone doesn't have cable service. So like I said, to make up for more time and more globally-related learning, slash subjects that would slow down a child's or a teenager's progress. Leave all the learning on those subjects to those who really wants to specialize on them. And let's call them musicians, artists, and Physical Instructors. Duh.
And why stop slashing subjects at the primaries and secondaries? We could slash lots of subjects off the tertiary level as well! The CHED could slash History 101 and Rizal (well, Rizal is by law required to be learned by students, so no Rizal slashing) and Filipino 101. Who needs to re-learn Emilio Aguinaldo considering you've been previously taught of it in elementary and high-school? Who needs to learn the Alibata or other defunct ways of writing when English and/or Jejenese is the global requirement?
That's why it's so slow learning your major in college. Take me for example. In my years up to my second year second semester in college, me and my batchmates only took one accounting subject per semester. Then when we became third year students, we got subject-shocked because we jumped from one accounting subject at a time to five accounting subjects at a time. If instead those subjects were injected slowly through our earlier years in college, we wouldn't have been subject-shocked. Hell, I could definitively say that we could've even performed better than we have if we knew our subjects earlier instead of dozing off on Humanities or Sociology. Who needs to learn those if you're in the Accounting Department? Its totally unrelated to your major so why bother listen to it? We would not be psychologists or sociologists or historians, we're accountants. It also applies to you. Would you like to learn paintings and all that dandy stuff if you're taking up Engineering or Nursing? Its a no-brainer.
See? The government need not add more years for students to learn. They could just, as I've mentioned in this post so many times, SLASH unproductive, irrelevant and globally-uncompetitive subjects off the curriculum! That way the government will save more and the parents would spend less!
So to President Noynoy Aquino and/or the DepEd head: If you're reading/you have read this, I suggest you consider my suggestions. Let's not be sentimental about the subjects that you and I both know are of no help to our future generation. Anyway Noy, you slashed the Head of PAGASA as easy as that even though he served loyally for 26 years. You could slash the uncompetitive subjects as easy as that as well. Please do consider. It would be a win-win situation for both the government and for parents and students alike.
'Till my next installment.
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