A senior congressman on Thursday welcomes the return of English as primary medium of instruction, saying it will enhance the youth’s employability here and abroad.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said the country’s labor force will boost further its reputation as Asia’s youngest and most sought-after workers because of their proficiency in the English language.
Villafuerte was referring to Republic Act 12027 that restores English, along with Filipino, as the primary media of instruction from kindergarten to Grade 3, and made regional languages as optional and auxiliary media for teaching or learning in schools.
“For communication and instruction purposes, English and Filipino are back as the primary official languages in our schools, while the dialects shall be optional or auxiliary media of teaching in the regions where these dialects are spoken, following the lapse into law of RA [Republic Act] 12027 that discontinued the use of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction from kindergarten to Grade 3 in our schools,” Villafuerte said.
RA 12027 lapsed into law last Oct. 10, reverting to English and Filipino as the medium of instruction in the four grade levels.
This new law effectively put off the mandatory use of regional dialects or languages as the primary media of instruction, or first language from kindergarten to Grade 3, as institutionalized 11 years ago under RA 10533, or the “Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.”
“Although the true intent of RA 10533 to make basic education more accessible and pupil-friendly, especially in the regions where particular dialects are spoken, subsequent developments following this law’s implementation showed that the use of the mother tongue has not led to better students and has, in fact, affected our youth’s competitive edge in the labor force, both here and overseas, as young workers who are high-skilled and supposed to be proficient in English, which is the world’s lingua franca, especially in this Age of the Internet,” Villafuerte said.
“After a decade of this teaching modality, the use of the mother tongue as set under RA 10533 has sadly proven to be a failed experiment, judging from international studies such as the PISA (Programme on International Student Assessment) that pointed to our students as among the world’s worst learners,” said Villafuerte.
Since January last year, Villafuerte has pushed a review of the decade-old education policy on the use of the dialect as the main medium of instruction for our grade schoolers.
