Which would be more practical, the language of your country or the language of the internet? Filipino and English are taught simultaneously in schools to achieve national-level proficiency through the Bilingual Education Policy. Yet, President Bongbong Marcos intends to re-examine English as the schools’ primary mode of instruction. “To maintain our advantage as an English-speaking people,” he says. However, based on the way the President spoke about Filipinos and the Filipino languages, it seems like English is his ideal language for the people of the Philippines. This new change could worsen our already-declining quality of education.
Knowledge of English is indeed valued in several respectable jobs. As of 2019, there were 2.2 million Filipinos who worked overseas and over 12 million who lived abroad.
Switching the mode of instruction, however, is not a guarantee that it will help the students as it will affect their ability to understand and express themselves. It seems like it could be another issue to worry about since every student’s life and future will, in effect, be greatly impacted. Instead, the government must be compelled to drastically improve the country's language learning education through more inclusive programs for assessments and classroom teaching.
Of the 78 countries ranked in education, the Philippines only placed 55. The overall education system of the Philippines is already considered mediocre based on the results of three assessments the country has participated in recently: the Program for International Student (PISA,) the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS,) and the first cycle of the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) Changing the teaching mode may set us back further. Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines chairman Vladimer Queta says that the "language barrier is a basic reason why the Philippines lags behind and our students are at a disadvantage in these tests." The English language is needed to learn Math and Science concepts too, and that is another hurdle to jump over. However, Queta also stated that students are found to do better in tests conducted in their mother tongue.
It would be logical for the government to offer options for conducting national exams in the country's most prominent languages. For example, exams in Tagalog, Cebuano, or Ilocano, as not everybody is taught in English. This concept also takes into consideration the fact that national tests for competencies and literacy are not supposed to be confined to one linguistic system since it measures specific skills (reading comprehension, writing skills, etc.) that definitely transcend the confines of a single language.
ACT also agreed that President Marcos should instead focus on providing and developing decent jobs for Filipinos here in the Philippines so that there wouldn't be a need to be fluent in English for the sake of foreign employment. Promotion and support of local industries can go a long way.
From 2012 to 2013, the Mother Tongue–Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) was implemented in all public schools for the first time. The program aimed to educate students in their mother tongues, with additional languages like English and Filipino being introduced after grade three, as per the K-12 law. It is believed that learning is more effective and students are more comfortable in the classroom; it proves that mother tongue-based education achieves the most success academically. But despite that, MTB-MLE was highly criticized due to inadequate school materials, difficulty in understanding, a lack of teachers fluent in the required languages, and especially failure to teach the promised languages while producing more illiterate students than other programs in the past century.
The Philippines is one of the most diverse countries when it comes to local languages. With the education system only pushing for Filipino and English — and a few local languages in certain regions — several of our hundred languages could die out. That would mean losing the people's heritage and identity. Our languages tell us about our history, which is something that we shouldn't forget. As Dr. Jose Rizal once said, "Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay higit pa sa hayop at malansang isda (He who does not know how to love his own language is worse than beasts and smelly fish)."
President Marcos should not go through with the plan to change the language used in schools. After all, different schools already cater to other students—his inclination to make a huge change proves how fundamental this is. As an English-speaking student body, we should appreciate how we are able to speak multiple languages without the need for government intervention; it’s truly a blessing. Is “economic advantage” really worth reshaping the country’s youth and ultimately altering our culture?
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