Educators slam GMA for new English policy

Filipino departments of three universities, writers’ groups, and Filipino teachers’ associations said yesterday that President Arroyo’s new policy of using English as the medium of instruction in schools all over the country is a "misreading" of the constitutional provisions on the use of English and Filipino as the country’s official languages.

"The (Presidential) statement is an apparent misreading of the particular constitutional provisions on the use of English and Filipino as official languages of the Philippines," said Dr. Galileo Zafra, director of the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino of the University of the Philippines (UP), quoting from a joint statement issued by these groups.

Representatives from the Filipino departments of the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippine Normal University, University of the Philippines, Samahan ng mga Kolehiyo at Unibersidad sa Filipino, Pambansang Samahan at Tagapagtaguyod ng Filipino, Pambansang Samahan sa Wika, Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas, the Center of Filipino Language-Diliman, Department of Linguistics, Institute of Creative Writing, and Language Teaching Area of UP also signed the statement.

The groups said Article 14, Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution was misread by the President: "Subject to provisions of law and as the Congress may deem appropriate, 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."

Mrs. Arroyo earlier said that the Constitution "specifies the use of Filipino as language of instruction, but it also specifies that this is subject to provisions of law and as Congress may deem appropriate. Therefore, I am directing the Department of Education to return English as (the) primary medium of instruction."

Zafra, who teaches courses in Philippine literature at the UP’s Filipino department, said the President undermined the constitutional mandate to develop Filipino as a tool for education by highlighting the role of the English language for her "global competitiveness" program.

He said Mrs. Arroyo has distorted the meaning of the constitutional provision in another way.

"Section 6 already paves the status of Filipino as the only official language of the Philippines. It is the abolition of English that needs the enactment from Congress at a time when the Filipino language has achieved total recognition and function as the national language."

The groups also said that Mrs. Arroyo’s statements place her in the same mold of Philippine presidents who implemented language policies in complete disregard of scientific and modern learning principles.

"One of these is that a child learns faster in his or her native tongue. Another is that a child easily learns a second language if he or she is already literate in the native language," they said, noting that these learning principles have been validated in experiments and studies even before the implementation of the bilingual policy in Philippine education.

The groups cited the Iloilo experiment in the 1960s, which showed that Filipino youths learn faster and better in their native language.

"Test results showed that the highest scores were obtained by those who studied science in their own language, like the Japanese and Korean children," they said, quoting from the joint report of the Senate and House committees on education in 1998.

The groups said the President should consider giving priority to the growth of local scientific and entrepreneurial endeavors, instead of adopting a development program attuned to the labor needs of the multinational market.

They proposed that the Arroyo administration seriously consider the use of Filipino as the sole medium of instruction in the primary level of education, arguing that English can be introduced at the intermediate levels.

"Hong Kong and mainland China are currently implementing this method when their educators realized its educational efficacy," they said in their joint statement.

Zafra said that such a system, emphasizing the role of the first language, will produce students who are literate in Filipino and would be ready to learn English and other subjects in English.

"We suggest that we invest in the training and re-training of our teachers. Our schools should get a bigger budget to invigorate the teaching profession. We should earnestly develop and produce textbooks written in Filipino to support this proposed national language program," he said, quoting from the statement.