ILOILO – A measure which ceases the use of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3 has been met with criticism.
On October 11, the measure, Republic Act (RA) No. 12027, lapsed into law without President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signing it. It amends sections of Republic Act No. 10533, or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, which previously mandated teaching assessments for Kindergarten to Grade 3 students in their regional or native languages, as part of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE).
Kabataan’s Cong. Raoul Manuel of Iloilo City criticized the new law, labelling it a “step backward” and attributing it to a colonial mentality that persists among government officials.
According to Manuel, this mentality suppresses Philippine languages while glorifying English proficiency as a measure of intelligence.
The group argues that mother tongue instruction is crucial for helping residents understand academic and governmental concepts. The new law, however, favors a shift towards prioritizing basic English, at the cost of developing deeper reading comprehension skills and encouraging independent thinking, according to the Kabataan.
They also expressed concerns that the educational shift serves economic interests by preparing Filipino youth to be more appealing to foreign companies as low-wage workers, undermining their rights to decent work conditions.
RA 12027 states that the medium of instruction will revert to Filipino and English until further legislation is passed, with regional languages being used as supplementary instruction. It also allows for optional implementation of MTB-MLE in monolingual classes under specific criteria set by the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF), including developed orthography and documented vocabulary.
Furthermore, the Department of Education (DepEd) is tasked to review the optional implementation of the MTB-MLE program in monolingual classes three years after the law takes effect and develop a mapping policy to assess learners’ native languages systematically.
The law is set to take effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette, signaling significant changes in the foundational stages of education in the Philippines./PN
