ILOILO City — Despite legislative changes, the practical use of the mother tongue in classrooms would persist due to its effectiveness in enhancing student comprehension, according to the Department of Education (DepEd) Region 6.
Dr. Elena Gonzaga, the chief education supervisor of the Curriculum and Learning Management Division at DepEd-6, pointed out that teachers still need to employ the mother tongue, especially when explaining complex Filipino or English terms to ensure learners fully grasp the concepts.
“The medium of instruction is crucial not only in early education but across all grade levels, including college, where the mother tongue serves as a conversational language,” Gonzaga explained.
As of this writing, DepEd-6 is awaiting the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) from its Central Office before it can proceed with the cessation of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3.
Gonzaga emphasized the necessity of these guidelines to officially halt the use of the mother tongue in educational settings.
Gonzaga issued the clarification in response to inquiries about the implications of the recently enacted Republic Act (RA) No. 12027. This Act, which lapsed into law on October 11, amends sections 4 and 5 of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (RA No. 10533). The amendment discontinues the use of regional or native languages as the primary medium of instruction, which was previously mandated by the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) approach.
Under the new RA 12027, the medium of instruction will revert to Filipino and, until further legislation, English.
Regional languages will continue to serve as supplementary media for instruction.
The law also allows for optional implementation in monolingual classes where all learners speak the same mother tongue.
Additionally, the law mandates that DepEd must review the optional implementation of the MTB-MLE Program in monolingual classes three years post-effectivity and develop a mapping policy to assess and classify learners based on their native languages one year after the law takes effect.
This mapping will help systematically determine the existence of monolingual classes each school year.
RA 12027 will officially take effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette. Meanwhile, DepEd-6 will await further instructions from their Central Office regarding the implementation of the new medium of instruction to replace the mother tongue./PN
