Mother
tongues will replace the national language and English in the first three
grades of state elementary schools in the Philippines, as part of a new
government policy aimed at boosting early learning skills among children.
Of the 170 region-based tongues spoken, 11
main ones cover most of the population and the switch to them in the early
grades will start in the new school year in June for Grade 1 pupils. It follows
a successful experiment by the education department to test mother-tongue
teaching in 920 elementary schools nationwide last year.
Teachers are being told to expect more
participation in the new curriculum year from pupils who are too reluctant to
speak in class using Filipino or English if neither language is used at home.
"The problem with the bilingual policy
was that comprehension was very low in the early grades," said Rose
Villaneza, head of the Department of Education's Mother Tongue-Based
Multilingual Education programme. "Using familiar mother tongues will help
students freely express ideas - and that's important for cognitive
development."
Tagalog--the language of central and southern
Luzon--is the most widely spoken. It was chosen as the national language nearly
70 years ago by former president Manuel Quezon to help unify the archipelago
with deep-rooted regional ties.
Tagalog-based Filipino is the home language of
only about 20 per cent of the 94 million people in the country, where nearly as
many speak Cebuano. Early learners are often taught in their community language
as well as Filipino and English.
The switch in June will begin with
six-year-olds at Grade 1 in elementary education. The programme will be
expanded to seven- and eight-year-olds by mid-2015 in nearly 40,000 elementary
schools--attended by 13 million pupils--across the country.
At age nine, the medium of instruction will
switch to Filipino and English.
The education department sees no major
hiccups, like linguistic gaps, because most languages spoken in the Philippines
are variations of the chosen ones and almost all Filipinos will be familiar
with at least one.
"These will be the base for a
multilingual education using Filipino to develop our national identity and
English to be globally competitive," Villaneza said.
Pupils in early grades in the Philippines were
taught in local languages until the early 1970s, when the Ferdinand Marcos
administration began the march for bilingualism in Filipino and English.
Concerns over slipping English
standards--blamed by some on a declining quality in English teaching and less
English spoken on local television--prompted the previous administration to
reinforce English-medium education.
These days, around 70 per cent of the
high-school curriculum - including maths and science--is taught in English, and
the rest in Tagalog-based Filipino.
The education authorities hope that the new
system will help improve comprehension and critical thinking skills in early
grades, which in turn will help reverse a decline in maths and science
standards.
University student Sheila Trillanes--an
Ilonggo speaker studying to become a teacher - says this will "make it
easier for students to grasp the lessons being taught".
Villaneza said it had been impossible to
ignore compelling local and international evidence showing that using first
languages in early education is crucial for developing a child's mind and
self-confidence before embarking on a multilingual path.
The World Bank and the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation back the process of beginning
learning in mother tongues.
New textbooks are being prepared by academics
and education officials. Each of the 11 languages will have its own edition,
using regional cultural references, such as for food, customs and folklore. But
this will take several years to complete.
A bigger concern is whether the policy sticks,
because the government has flip-flopped in education over the years to get the
mix right.
Villaneza believes this one is here to stay.
"The results of the pilot study were an
eye-opener not just for teachers, students and parents, but also for the local
authorities and congressmen," she said. "So it's off to a good
start."
Alastair McIndoe
The Straits Times.
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