LSP's statement against Senate Bill No. 2457

Statement of the LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF THE PHILIPPINES (LSP) Against Senate Bill No. 2457 “AN ACT DISCONTINUING THE USE OF MOTHER TONGUE AS THE MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION FROM KINDERGARTEN TO GRADE 3, PROVIDING FOR ITS OPTIONAL IMPLEMENTATION IN MONOLINGUAL CLASSES, AND AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE SECTIONS 4 AND 5 OF REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10533, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE ‘ENHANCED BASIC EDUCATION ACT OF 2013”

The Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP) expresses its strong indignation against the proposed Senate Bill No. 2457 that seeks to discontinue using the  various Philippine regional languages, our young students’ mother tongues, as medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3. The bill not only undermines the progress the country has achieved in making education more inclusive, but it also denigrates the value of mother tongues in young learners’ learning. It also disregards the crucial role of education and the state in upholding the civil right and the human right of every child to be educated through their mother tongue that is foregrounded in various international human rights documents and conventions, including the United Nations.

Previous research has already established the fact that young learners learn best in the language that they use and understand. With their mother tongue, students can better receive and retain the information they are learning from the different content areas they take at school. Additionally, they develop affinity and pride toward their linguistic resources. While it is true that such limitation to 19 languages in the initial implementation of the Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE), which is primarily due to logistical reasons, has provisionally sidelined other local languages, this does not create a reasonable rationale for the total abolition of the MTB-MLE. Instead, efforts should be directed toward the development of the language policy, such as the allocation of resources for research, teacher training, and community mobility, so that the other regional languages can be better empowered. It is also important to allow teachers the agency to decide upon the language(s) that are suitable to achieve optimal results for their linguistically diverse students, free from the fear of receiving sanctions. Moreover, in more linguistically diverse classrooms, this also entails allowing students and teachers to use natural language practices such as translanguaging in pedagogical ways across content areas. By espousing the abolition of the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction, SB 2457 undermines the relevance of the mother tongue in creating a more inclusive education in a multilingual and multicultural country such as the Philippines. 

Before the MTB-MLE was the Bilingual Education Policy which the former supplanted in 2009.  Abolishing the 35-year-old Bilingual Education Policy was a solution deemed to address age-old language of instruction issues.  The use of English and Filipino alone as MOI was already demonstrated to be a failure, disempowering learners whose main language is neither English nor Filipino. The problems raised before, which led to the abrogation of the BEP concerns learners’ dismal scholastic achievements and their inability to use both languages since proficiency in a second or third language rests crucially on proficiency on the first. If the senators believe that the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction will not work, what makes them think that reinstituting the use of English and Filipino will?

Instead of discrediting the gains from the MTB-MLE, lawmakers should listen to the results of various studies that have promoted and supported multilingual education and create laws that enhance MTB-MLE, reinforcing the use of mother tongues in teaching and learning and empowering teachers to make pedagogical decisions in the classrooms.  Doing so can strengthen our efforts to achieve more inclusive education, where students learn better while at the same time developing appreciation of their languages and participating in the preservation of their heritage.

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About the Linguistic Society of the Philippines

The Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP), founded in 1969, is the premier linguistics organization in the country. Currently, it has 500 active members composed of linguists, language scholars, and language educators. LSP strives for the advancement of the scientific study of language and has been actively involved in discussions that inform language policies. LSP regularly conducts conferences and lectures and has over the years, published festschrifts, volumes, monographs, conference proceedings, and a periodical.