Gatchalian wants Senate to probe integration of ‘mother tongue policy’ in education system

The Senate must probe the integration of mother tongue-based multilingual education into the country’s basic education system to address Filipino students’ poor academic performance, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts, and Culture filed a resolution seeking a Senate inquiry into the mother tongue policy mandated by the K-12 Law.

“Bagama’t maganda ang layunin ng mother tongue policy sa ilalim ng programang K to 12, nakita natin na may mga hamon sa ating kakayahan at kahandaang ipatupad ito,” he said in a statement.

Among the challenges, Gatchalian said, were the lack of textbooks written in Filipino and the lack of teacher training on the use of the mother tongue as the language of instruction.

“Kaya ang kailangan dito ay isang masusing pag-aaral upang malaman natin kung paano ba natin matutugunan ang mga kakulangan ng naturang programa,” he said.

Gatchalian also cited the country’s “dismal” performance in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment, where the Philippines was ranked the lowest out of 79 countries in reading comprehension. 

“Children learn better and faster in a language that they can understand. This, in effect, boosts their self-esteem making them enjoy school more,” he said.

Gatchalian earlier said there was a “major crisis” in the country’s basic education system after the Philippines flunked several international assessments. — Julia Mari Ornedo/BM, GMA News