Artist and filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik plans to renounce his status as a National Artist and return his medallion in protest of the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) Reframed General Education Curriculum (RGEC). The program is expected to overhaul arts and humanities courses in the current general education (GE) curriculum.
At a forum in Teachers’ Camp, Baguio City on Tuesday, June 16, Tahimik told participants that he had already sent a letter to CHED Director Shirley Agrupis regarding his intention to relinquish his title, which he earned in 2018. “I will forego my National Artist’s amenities such as monthly stipends, healthcare, and the privilege to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” he said.
CHED’s RGEC program seeks to address perceived redundancies between senior high school (SHS) and higher education courses by consolidating GE courses in college and make students more employment-ready. The program’s rollout is expected to start in 2028 as CHED continues to review it in response to concerns from various educational institutions and organizations.
According to critics, including Tahimik, CHED risks deprioritizing essential arts and humanities courses by consolidating them and reducing the required GE units from 36 to 18 or 21.
The Department of Education received similar criticism in June 2025 when it proposed to remove ethics, contemporary world, and art appreciation courses from the GE curriculum, claiming that similar subjects are already part of the SHS curriculum. Unlike the DepEd’s proposal, however, the RGEC program proposes merging certain courses and reframing others.
Under the RGEC, the contemporary world, math, science, and ethics would all be integrated into two new courses: global trends and emerging technologies; and data, evidence, and ethics. Understanding the self and readings in Philippine history would be merged into the Rizal and Philippine studies course. Art appreciation would also be relegated to the existing art curriculum from kindergarten to grade 12.
“We are following the Western model, which requires us to specialize, and often we favor over-specialization in the sciences because these are quantifiable, right?” said Tahimik. “I think we have to just be aware that subjects regarding history, the arts, and our culture are as valuable and should not be reduced to almost zero.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Tahimik is protesting CHED’s RGEC, which reduces required general education (GE) units from 36 to 18 and consolidates arts, history, and humanities courses under the GE curriculum.
The RGEC consolidates college general education courses to eliminate redundancies with senior high school subjects, merging arts and humanities into broader units. Rollout begins in 2028.
Under CHED’s RGEC, the contemporary world, ethics, understanding the self, and Philippine history will all be merged, or reframed in a new general education curriculum. Art appreciation will be removed entirely.
DepEd sought to remove arts and humanities from the general education (GE) curriculum outright. The RGEC merges and reframes them instead, but critics argue that both approaches risk essential learning in the arts and humanities.
Kidlat Tahimik argues that with the RGEC, Philippine education over-privileges the sciences because they are quantifiable, while reducing history, arts, and culture to near zero.
