Filipino down the slippery slope

Then again, one cannot deny the Philippines’ fallout in international assessments — of course, this is the very reason why education is getting a whole rebrand. Likewise, it was stated by Dr. Lino Sanchez, the Education Program Supervisor in Filipino, that all of these reforms are for the sake of making way for enhanced communication, which mainly uses English, in a globalized world. Consequently, with Mother Tongue, and potentially, some Filipino subjects out of the picture, teachers can now focus more on enhancing the students’ skills in numeracy, reading, and the sciences. However, would not take away the foundations of the students’ primary comprehension lead us to even more fallbacks?

Although it was reiterated that Mother Tongue could still be used as a medium of instruction and that the topic of the reduction of Filipino subjects still remains as a proposal, this will still take more of a huge toll on the Philippines’ performance both locally and internationally. After all, in the first place, Mother Tongue and Filipino subjects were implemented to enhance students’ understanding capabilities, and therefore, performance. Additionally, this greatly contradicts DepEd’s visions of promoting quality, equitable, culture-based, and complete basic education. DepEd cannot just go on ignoring explicit and alarming numbers, especially now that education is hanging on by a thread.

Before anything else, it is imperative for DepEd to reassess why they are even doing this. The numbers are clear, this is not what students need. If they want to improve the nation’s proficiency, strengthening already existing programs is the way to go. Language programs, particularly Mother Tongue and Filipino, are in need of improvements and revisions through learning materials and teaching training. Discarding them should be out of the question. It is time for DepEd to stop and see where they are standing before they lead the Philippines to a never-ending slippery slope toward a severely degraded education system.