Filipino, Panitikan should stay as core college subjects —Gatchalian

Filipino and Panitikan should remain as core college subjects so that students will become more adept at using the language, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said on Sunday.

Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Educational Reforms, made the remark after the Supreme Court ruling lifting the temporary restraining order on the exclusion of Filipino and Panitikan as core college subjects.

"Para sa akin, mas maganda na ituloy at laliman pa yung pagtuturo [ng Filipino at Panitikan] at para magamit din ito sa mga trabaho," Gatchalian said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

"Ngayon sa trabaho natin, bihira na talaga magamit yung Filipino, karamihan English. Ito ay isang hindi magandang pangyayari dahil ang wika ay isang paraan para lalong lumalim yung ating nationalism," he added.

Gatchalian said that if Filipino and Panitikan are excluded as core college subjects, they will only be reduced to subjects taken in senior high schools.

"Marami sa mga estudyante ngayon, lalo na ngayon napansin ko itong mga nag-aaral sa elementary and high school, mababaw ang pagkababaw ng paggamit sa Filipino," he said.

"Kung bababawasan pa natin, lalong bababaw yung paggamit nila at pag-unawa nila sa Filipino lalo na pagdating sa kolehiyo," he added.

For Gatchalian, Filipino and Panitikan subjects should be taught both in senior high school and college but in varying levels of difficulty.

"Kumbaga iba yung pagtuturo sa senior high school at pagdating sa college ay iba rin ang pagtuturo nila at mas malalim yung ituturo doon," he said.

The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the controversial K to 12 program, which gave birth to the senior high school program, and junked all the petitions against the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 and the Kindergarten Education Act. —Erwin Colcol/LBG, GMA News