Now that the proposed discontinuation on the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction has lapsed into law, Senator Win Gatchalian is calling on the Department of Education (DepEd) to prioritize its effective and immediate rollout.

Republic Act No. 12027 discontinues the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3, which was mandated by the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (Republic Act No. 10533) or the K to 12 Law. The medium of instruction shall revert to Filipino, and until otherwise provided by law, English, pursuant to Article XIV, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution. The law further provides that regional languages shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction.

The principles of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) embodied in the K to 12 Law, however, may be applied in monolingual classes. The law defines a monolingual class as a group of learners who speak the same mother tongue and are enrolled in the same grade level in a given school year.

The use of mother tongue in monolingual classes must comply with the minimum requirements needed for MTB-MLE’s effective implementation: an official orthography developed and published by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF); officially documented vocabulary published by the KWF such as glossary, dictionary, encyclopedia, or thesaurus; literature on languages and culture, such as big books, small books, picture stories, or wordless picture books; grammar book; and availability of teachers in the school who speak and are trained to teach in the Mother Tongue.

A 2019 study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) revealed that out of 16,287 schools surveyed, only 9% met these requirements for the good implementation of MTB-MLE.

“Malinaw sa naging karanasan ng ating mga mag-aaral at mga guro na hindi naging matagumpay ang pagpapatupad ng mother tongue sa ating mga paaralan. Malinaw din sa ating pag-aaral at pananaliksik na hindi akma ang paggamit ng Mother Tongue kung ang mga mag-aaral sa isang klase ay multilingual. Ngayon, mabibigyan na natin ang mga guro ng kalayaang gumamit ng wikang akma sa pangangailangan at sitwasyon ng mga mag-aaral,” said Gatchalian.

He recalled that during the Senate Committee on Basic Education’s review of the implementation of MTB-MLE, the studies presented on the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction were conducted in monolingual settings. These include the empirical Lingua Franca (1999-2002) and Lubuagan (1999-2011) studies.