Gatchalian pushes mother tongue education

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SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian has sought an inquiry on the implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) to address the poor school performance of learners where language plays a significant factor.

The MTB-MLE is mandated by Republic Act 10533 or the “K to 12 Law,” which was implemented in 2012.

Gatchalian recently filed Senate Resolution 610 to determine the effectiveness of integrating the MTB-MLE in the basic education system.

“Children learn better and faster in a language that they can understand. This, in effect, boosts their self-esteem making them enjoy school more,” he said on Sunday.

He noted that it is difficult to achieve academic development amid the lack of textbooks written in the mother tongue and the lack of teacher training on using the mother tongue as a language of instruction.

“While the purpose of the mother tongue policy is laudable, we saw some challenges in our capacity and readiness to implement it,” Gatchalian said in a statement. “At stake here is the quality of education that our students receive. That’s why there is a need to thoroughly study it to determine how can we address the program’s shortcomings.”

He cited the dismal performance of the country’s learners in the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment where some 94 percent of participating 15-year-old Filipino students speak a language at home most of the time other than the medium of instruction used in the assessment, which was English.

Under the K to 12 program, instructions, teaching materials and assessment must be in the regional or native language of learners from kindergarten to Grade 3.

From Grades 4 to 6, Filipino and English must be gradually introduced as languages of instruction through a language bridge program. At the secondary level, these two languages will become the primary languages of instruction.