Professors of Filipino breaking bad over CHED memo

(Updated 12:39 p.m., June 15, 2014) College professors who teach Filipino and supporters of the Filipino language in general are contesting a Commission on Higher Education (CHED) memorandum that will remove the teaching of Filipino from the General Education Curriculum (GEC).

According to the CHED Memorandum (CMO) No. 20, series of 2013, Filipino will no longer be part of the GEC by 2016 and the teaching of Filipino at the college level will be limited to Filipino majors and Education in Filipino majors.

The CHED justified its removal of college-level Filipino by saying that the subject would be covered in Grades 11 and 12 under the new K-12 curriculum. “Hangga't maari, pagdating mo sa college, mga major subjects na lang,” explained CHED Executive Director Julito Vitriolo.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts' National Committee on Language and Translation (NCCA-NCLT), however, believes otherwise. Last May 23, its members unanimously signed a resolution asking the GEC be revised again, but this time to include nine mandatory units of Filipino for all courses at the tertiary level.

The Pambansang Samahan sa Linggwistika at Literaturang Filipino, Ink. (PSLLF), an organization that promotes the use of Filipino, has thrown its support behind the NCCA-NCLT resolution by promoting a change.org petition which asks the CHED and Congress to include the nine Filipino units in the GEC. The online and written petition letters were initiated by De La Salle University Filipino professor David Michael San Juan.

According to the petition, the CHED memorandum violates Article XIV, Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution, which says “the Government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.”

The memo also contradicts the College Readiness Standards, which includes Filipino, that the CHED released in 2011 through Resolution No. 298-2011.

Estimated loss of jobs

San Juan, the principal author of the resolution, estimates that implementing the CHED memo will cause over 10,000 full-time and 20,000 part-time Filipino professors to lose their jobs or get less income.

This estimation is based on the data given by the National Statistical Coordination Board, which stated that 3,317,530 students enrolled in the higher education for school year 2012-2013. According to San Juan, 10,290 full-time instructors were needed to teach Filipino in the tertiary level for S.Y. 2012-2013.

“The crusade of our professors in nurturing our native language plays a vital role in battling the miseducation of the Filipinos under the colonial system which failed to uplift the lives of the majority,” San Juan said in an interview.

San Juan also criticized the K-12 curriculum as speeding up training in workers’ manufacturing for foreign businesses and their local subsidiaries. “The K-12 program was not designed for the needs of the country, but for developed countries,” he added.

Need

Angelo Barra, a concerned netizen, said, “Sana paigtingin na lang and pagtuturo ng wikang Filipino sa elementary at high school. Hindi naman ito masyadong kailangan sa college kasi basics lang din ang itinuturo kaya parang inulit lang. Para na rin makapag-focus na lang sa kinukuhang kurso. May K-12 naman [na pinahaba pa] para matutunan and wikang Filipino.”

However, PSLLF president Aurora Batnag pointed out that there was a need to retain Filipino subjects at the tertiary level. “Sa mas mataas na level ng edukasyon nagaganap ang intelektwalisasyon ng wika na kailangan para lubusang magamit ang wikang ito sa lahat ng antas at disiplina,” she argued.

“Binura ng K-12 ang ipinaglaban noong 1970s para magkaroon ng 6-9 units ng Filipino sa kolehiyo,” Batnag added.

DLSU professor Dolores Taylan said that in the context of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), which is working towards narrowing the development gap among ASEAN nations by the time the ASEAn single market is implemented in 2015, there is a growing need to reinforce the national language to uphold the Filipino identity.

“Hindi dapat mawala ang Departamento ng Filipino sa mga kolehiyo. Ayon nga kay [former DLSU president and former Department of Education Secretary] Br. Andrew Gonzales FSC, walang kolehiyo sa Pilipinas na walang Departamento ng Filipino,” Taylan said.

The NCCA-NCLT's resolution was received by the office of CHED chairman Patricia Licuanan last May 2, though the chairman has yet to respond to it.

Nevertheless, a dialogue did take place last June 2 between CHED Commissioners Alex Brillantes and Cynthia Bautista and professors from DLSU-Manila, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), University of Santo Tomas, Miriam College, and Marinduque State University. DLSU-Manila Political Science professor Antonio Contreras, had arranged the dialogue.

DLSU-Manila's Filipino Department, meanwhile, is organizing a consultative forum for June 21. — VC/DVM/BM, GMA News