The ABM strand

The Accountancy, Business, and Management (ABM) Strand of the Academic Track of Senior High School (SHS) has nine specialization subjects, namely:

Applied Economics

Business Ethics and Social

Responsibility

Fundamentals

of Accountancy,

Business, and Management 1

Fundamentals of Accountancy,

Business, and Management 2

Business Math

Business Finance

Organization and Management

Principles of Marketing

Work Immersion / Research /

Career Advocacy / Culminating Activity

It should be remembered that these subjects have different content and competencies, which will be determined by the circumstances of the students, the school, and the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in which the students are most likely to enroll.

The idea that “one size fits all” has been abandoned by the Department of Education (DepEd). A lot of leeway is given to Senior High Schools, since the main and really the only reason that two years were added to basic education is to prepare students for their future lives. It makes no sense to force a student to follow a predetermined curriculum if s/he has something else in mind for herself or himself.

How are these subjects related to the course that the students will take in college?

Let us look at a typical curriculum for Bachelor of Science in Accountancy.

At the University of the Cordilleras, a first-year college student takes Accounting 101 (Accounting Orientation), a one-unit course that is a general introduction to accounting. After a student takes the two Fundamentals of Accountancy, Business, and Management specialization subjects in SHS, there will no longer be any need for this college course. There should also be no need for him or her to take Accounting 1/2 (Fundamentals of Accounting, Part I).

There will also be no need for Management 1 (Principles of Management), another college freshman subject. There will still be a need, however, for him or her to take Accounting 3/4 (Fundamentals of Accounting, Part II), which has content over and above that in the SHS subjects.

Since the General Education Curriculum (GEC) has been revised, there will also be no need for the student to take other subjects listed in the first-year curriculum, such as English 01 (Communication Skills Part I), English 02 (Communication Skills Part 2), Filipino 1 (Komunikasyon sa Akademikong Filipino), Filipino 2 (Pagbasa at Pagsulat Tungo sa Pananaliksik), Mathematics 1 (College Algebra), History 1 (Philippine History with Government and Constitution), and Natural Science 1 (Physical Science).

All of these subjects are now in the K to 12 curriculum and have been rightly removed from the GEC. Oral Communication, Reading and Writing, Komunikasyon at Pananaliksik sa Wika at Kulturang Pilipino, Pagbasa at Pagsusuri ng Iba’t Ibang Teksto Tungo sa Pananaliksik, General Mathematics, and Physical Science are SHS core subjects. Philippine History is taken up starting Grade 1 in Araling Panlipunan. The removal of duplication of subjects in the curriculum is one of the major advantages of the K to 12 reform.

Does this mean that a first-year student of accountancy will take up very few subjects?

Not really. There are new core subjects in the new GEC, which may or may not be taken during the freshman year. The CHED Technical Panel for Business and Management Education, like other Technical Panels of CHED, has new guidelines for the curriculum, based on CHED’s reduction of the GEC units.

The common perception that the addition of two years to basic education will automatically result in the reduction of two years in higher education is not correct. There is still one year of GEC in college; that means, of course, that one year of GE has been scrapped. Whether that one year will just be dropped or whether it will be filled in by major subjects still has to be determined by the Technical Panels.

In CHED, the Technical Panels formulate the curriculum. That is different from DepEd, where various Technical Working Groups (such as the SHS one that I co-chaired) draw up drafts of curriculums, but it is DepEd itself that has the final say. CHED may have the ministerial duty of promulgating college curriculums, but in reality, it is the Technical Panels that decide with finality.

Therefore, those that have things to say about the college curriculum should contact the concerned Technical Panel, not the CHED Commissioners (who will simply refer all queries to the Technical Panels anyway).

The Technical Panels consist of top educators and industry representatives in the respective fields. The private sector, in other words, really does most of the work when it comes to curriculum development. As I already mentioned in an earlier column, even the curriculum for SHS was initially formulated by the CHED Technical Panels.

Why do private sector professionals contribute their time and talent, without pay, to the work of formulating curriculums? Because they want to ensure that the coming generations will follow their footsteps or, better, will improve on what they have achieved.

(To be continued)