Teaching Bisaya to preserve Cebuano tongue

On the educational front, the big news in Cebu as reported by The Freeman is that Bisaya will be used as a medium of instruction in Cebu City as proposed by Department of Education (DepEd) regional director Carolino Mordeno. This is one of the dreams of the group Save our Languages Through Federalism (Solfed), which has fought for the preservation of the Cebuano language. Sure, this may only be a pilot project of DepEd as of now, which will be done in five elementary schools, namely Camputhaw, Camp Lapu-Lapu, Busay, Barangay Luz and the Lahug Elementary School.

Before the Americans came at the turn of the century, Bisaya was taught in the schools of Cebu as Spanish was only taught in exclusive schools, hence, many Cebuanos spoke Bisaya so fluently. But when the Americans came, English became the medium of instruction in schools, and soon Tagalog was "forced" upon us as students, which was later disguised as "Pilipino." Hence a lot of Cebuano words got lost in the process and if the situation were allowed to continue, Bisaya would have disappeared.

There is no question that when a child grows up and learns to speak, that child will speak the language of his parents. So if they speak Ilonggo, that child will speak Ilonggo. If the parents are Cebuano, no doubt the child will speak Bisaya. So when this child starts going to school and the medium of instruction is Bisaya, his learning process will be much better than teaching him to learn a new language first. Hence, there is no doubt that a child learns faster if his mother tongue is the medium of instruction.

Incidentally, the co-founder and president of Solfed, Dr. Jose Dacudao (an Ilonggo), is not only Butuan City’s lone brain surgeon, but also a rabid language preservationist and he found out that the Butuanon language was spoken there at the turn of the century. But today, only two barangays can speak this language. So he tasked the members of Solfed to learn the Butuanon language and in many events, the national anthem was sung in Butuanon to the surprise even of the governor. Efforts like what Dr. Dacudao has done in Butuan City have helped preserve not only our language and culture, but our heritage as well.

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Still on improving our educational standards, Sen. Mar Roxas has openly declared his support for the efforts of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to close down schools that offer substandard education. Sen. Roxas was alarmed over the low passing rate in licensure and eligibility examinations of students from certain schools and universities.

I fully agree that if our schools cannot give our students quality education, there is no point in allowing these "diploma mills" to continue as they only produce more less than average graduates who end up getting menial jobs... that’s if they’re lucky enough to get jobs at all! I dare say that schools that have poor standards are in effect only fooling our parents into believing that sending their kids to these schools will improve their status in life.

Indeed, it’s about time that the CHED shuts down these schools before they do further damage to our youth... our supposed hope of the Fatherland. A case in point: those computer schools that suddenly found a new moneymaking well called Nursing. Now many of these schools are offering nursing courses, yet this was never in their original plans when they got their permits from CHED. There is no doubt that the only way we can improve our educational standards is when CHED closes down schools that are below standard. I just hope that our political leaders who are often used to "influencing" CHED would realize the gravity of this problem.

Just as I was writing this article, I got an e-mailed list of the top 20 universities/colleges in the Philippines. This report was the result of a study conducted by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) and CHED, based on the average passing scores in board examinations in all courses of all universities and colleges in the Philippines. The study is conducted every 10 years.

On the top four slots were the University of the Philippines Diliman, UP Los Baños, UP Manila, and Siliman University (Dumaguete City), respectively. Ateneo de Davao came fifth, followed by Ateneo de Manila University. In seventh to 10th places were the University of Santo Tomas (Manila), Mindanao State University (Iligan), Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and Saint Louis University (Baguio City), respectively. My alma mater, the University of San Carlos (Cebu City), was in 11th place. All told, there were 11 schools from Luzon, two from the Visayas, and seven from Mindanao.

I submit that this report is quite embarrassing for us in Cebu because for many years we have been known as the educational center of the South. Now there are seven schools in Mindanao that fared better than our Cebu schools. This should be a wake-up call for all the schools and universities in Cebu which rely on the influx of students from Mindanao to fill up their classrooms. Now students from Mindanao don’t need to study in Cebu anymore.

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Congratulations are in order for Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV) which will hold its annual stockholders’ meeting at 4 p.m. today at the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in Cebu City. AEV is the investment vehicle of the Cebu-based Aboitiz family which reported a P626-million net income in the first quarter of 2005, up by 42 percent from the same period last year. The energy businesses of AEV remained the main growth driver with a combined contribution of P569 million, up by 160 percent. Aboitiz’s banking group contributed P298 million, up by 73 percent. AEV’s transport group posted a net loss of P157 million primarily due to higher fuel costs and lower revenues, resulting in the stoppage of SuperCat services to Bohol and Dumaguete. But AEV’s food business, Pilmico Foods Corp., performed very well with P112 million, up by eight percent from the same period last year. With this robust performance, we congratulate the Aboitiz Group!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.