Are We Raising Unethical Generations?

REMOVING ETHICS FROM the general education curriculum (GEC) in college is tantamount to raising future workers and leaders who are unethical or those who can’t distinguish right from wrong, good from bad.

It is foolish, if not evil, for some Department of Education officials to consider removing ethics from the required GEcourses in college just to shorten the time spent learning things that may apply in a child’s life– sooner or later. Expediency takes no precedence over morality or ethics.

“Ethics is the philosophical discipline that examines what is morally good and bad,  what is right and wrong. It encompasses fundamental issues of practical decision-making and includes various branches such as normative ethics, that establishes general principles of conduct, and applied ethics to address specific ethical dilemmas.

“Ethics also involves standards that guide behavior, such as honesty and compassion, and is concerned with the rights and responsibilities of individuals.”

ALREADY COVERED
It is not surprising that sometime in May, 20 faculty members of the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University Department of Philosophy issued a statement about the recently- proposed removal of ethics from the college curriculum, saying, Ethics Still Matters.

The DepEd proposal was laid bare on May 28 by Assistant Secretary Janir Datukan, in a proposal to the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture that ethics, along with some other General Education (GE) courses, could be removed from the college curriculum. 

Proponents believe the content and skills taught in these subjects are already covered in other courses in the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC).

This proposal, which DepEd is submitting to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), will shorten college education by one semester to ease the financial burden on families and to promote more focused learning by reducing the number of courses.

WHAT ETHICS BRINGS
“But various professional organizations—most notably the Union of Societies and Associations of Philosophy in the Philippines (USAPP)—and philosophy departments across the country, have voiced strong opposition,” the Ateneo statement said.

“These groups argue that the proposal reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the distinctive skills that ethics develops and warn of the long-term harm that removing such a course may bring to students and society as a whole,” it continued.

“Philosophy, both as a discipline and a way of thinking, trains individuals to inquire into the deeper causes and conditions that shape our world. It opens the path to asking if the world functions in a way that best serves our development and flourishing as individuals, which enables us to further discern what our role might be in shaping the world—not merely as it is, but as it could be,” it said. 

“Today, our people face the compounded crises of poverty, climate change, and an economic system that often denies them not only meaningful work but even their most basic needs, while algorithm-driven platforms increasingly shape opinions and decisions, deepening societal divisions in ways we have never seen before,” it said.

IT IS A NECESSITY
“If we are to pursue genuine development—where dignity, equity, and sustainability replace exploitation and poverty—we must cultivate a generation capable of ethical and philosophical reflection. We should not treat ethics as a luxury or sacrifice it for employability. It is a necessity in a world increasingly defined by complexity, uncertainty, and moral ambiguity,” the statement emphasized.

The faculty members called on DepEd and CHED “to approach the proposal with greater discernment and a more profound understanding of the kinds of thinking and skills necessary to build a sustainable future—one in which human well-being is measured not only by economic output but by the flourishing of persons and communities.”

“The revised GE curriculum has yet to undergo a thorough assessment of its effectiveness. How can we proceed with further revisions without a thorough evaluation? We urge CHED to proceed only based on expert knowledge and genuine consultation,” it said. The group commended the philosophical community in the Philippines for its swift and thoughtful response to this issue. 

“We also call on our broader community to remain vigilant and to demand that policymaking in education be grounded in meaningful dialogue, transparent consultation, and rigorous study. As a department, we express our readiness to contribute to these efforts and welcome opportunities to collaborate with CHED, DepEd, and other stakeholders in strengthening ethics education in the Philippines,” it said.

DON’T OVERSIMPLIFY
In a world that is changing fast, caution is important not to oversimplify what education should do.  “Rather than removing ethics—and with it, the opportunity to cultivate discernment, moral imagination, and critical thinking—we should strengthen it. If we want to prepare young Filipinos not only to respond to the challenges of the future but also to take part in shaping them, ethics must remain a vital part of their formation,” it said.

Similarly, the UP Diliman Department of Philosophy strongly opposed removing Ethics from GEC said it recognizes the financial pressure on students but a 3-unit Ethics course is less than 3 percent of typical degree program– a modest investment for lifelong critical thinking skills.

The UP Philo Department also recalled DepEd’s earlier move to demote the “Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person” from the core curriculum of the strengthened Senior High School program.
UP-Diliman said the challenges in Philippine education go beyond literacy, numeracy and reading comprehension. They extend to “weak critical thinking, shallow civic engagement, and limited moral discernment,” which are areas that Ethics directly addresses.

A CATEGORICAL MISTAKE
It highlighted the importance of Ethics in offering a rare institutional space for sustained moral reasoning, where students learn to question assumptions, confront ethical dilemmas, assess competing values and apply normative principles to complex real-world issues.

Removing Ethics from the curriculum would limit education to mere job training, akin to robots, “abandoning our responsibility to develop thoughtful citizens. It also said equating Ethics to GMRC is a categorical mistake.

UP Diliman stated that students, “as future leaders and citizens, need a well-rounded education and substantial preparation for their roles within local and global communities.”