Ludabi exec dares Gwen: Want English? ‘Pass law first’

CEBU, Philippines — A law has to be enacted by Congress before English could be officially used again as the basic medium of instruction, the Department of Education in Central Visayas said amid the proposal to scrap the mother tongue for teaching.

Over the same issue, a Bisaya language advocate has also expressed his willingness to debate with Governor Gwendolyn Garcia in the name of keeping the vernacular for instruction.

Yesterday, DepEd-7 Director Dr. Salustiano Jimenez told The FREEMAN that Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 specifically instructs for the use of mother tongue as the medium of teaching from kindergarten to Grade 3.

He said that stopping its implementation would require the passage of a new law.

“Even I, the regional director, have no authority to change the curriculum or even the content of the curriculum, especially the medium of instruction that will be used,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez said that he already discussed the matter with Cebu schools division superintendent Dr. Marilyn Andales, and he found out the resolution was “merely a proposal.”

Andales was co-chair of the Cebu Provincial School Board, which issued a resolution supposedly reinstituting English as basic medium of instruction in schools under Cebu province division starting next school year.

Governor Garcia, also a co-chair of the board, confirmed this in an interview with Capitol reporters on Tuesday.

She said she thinks that the reason why Filipino students are lagging behind their international counterparts is because of the confusion brought about by the implementation of the mother tongue system.

Garcia was referring to the results of a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that tested around 600,000 15-year-old students in 79 countries through the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The results revealed that the Philippines had an average reading score of 340, which was the lowest among the countries surveyed and also below the OECD average of 487.

“Reading proficiency is essential for a wide variety of human activities — from following instructions in a manual; to finding out the who, what, when, where and why of an event; to communicating with others for a specific purpose or transaction,” the result said.

Acting on this, the school board passed a resolution moving for the reinstitution of English as a basic medium for instruction in the basic education levels in the 44 towns of Cebu.

“While they are still trying to figure it out sa national, we decided to take matters into our own here. Let’s go back to what worked,” Garcia said.

She also promised to continue to implement the old scheme until charges will be pressed.

“Unless and until we are stopped, that is what we are implementing,” Garcia declared.

However, Jimenez said that once the resolution reaches his office, he will furnish a copy of it to the DepEd central office and then wait for its decision.

“I know the good governor knows the laws. I don’t think she will just act right away without any basis at all,” he said.

“There is no assurance as of now. We will see how fast the process will go,” he added.

Debate challenge

In a related development, the Lubas sa Dagang Bisaya (LUDABI), an association of artists and personalities who aim for the preservation of Bisaya as a language, said that this move by the province is a manifestation of “ignorance of history.”

“It is a manifestation of gross ignorance of the world as they continue to be enslaved by the bondage of slavery of the colonial master, using the English language as an effective tool to continually subjugate us and for our people to believe that we are not equal to them,” Atty. Leo Zaragosa, LUDABI national president, told this paper.

He also challenged Garcia to a debate on the matter any time.

Zaragosa added that meaningful discourse is needed to “realize the importance of the use of our own language for nation-building.”

“Matangtangan na unta sila sa gapos sa ilang utok nga ilang mga taptap sa ilang mata. Mabuka na unta aron masayod sila nga ang pinulongan nga English mao kanay dakong hinungdan nga kabus ang atong nasod (May their minds be freed from bondage and their blindfolds removed. May their eyes be opened so they would know that English, as a language, is the reason why our nation remains poor),” he said.

The use of mother tongue from kindergarten to Grade 3 and the use of a transitional mother language like Filipino and English from Grades 4 to 6 are prescribed under Section 4 of RA 10533. (FREEMAN)