The Department of Education (DepEd) in the MIMAROPA region has expressed its support for a new law that eliminates the use of mother tongue languages as the medium of instruction in classes from Kindergarten to Grade 3.
This law, which amends the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 or Republic Act 10533, officially took effect last week after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. allowed it to lapse without his signature.
In a recent Bagong Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas forum, DepEd-MIMAROPA Regional Director Nicolas T. Capulong backed the decision, highlighting the challenges in standardizing mother tongue languages across different regions. He used the example of different dialects spoken across various parts of Pampanga but all considered Kapampangan.
Capulong explained that the use of regional dialects as a primary medium for instruction did not align with national and international assessment tools, which are predominantly written in English.
Additionally, he noted that the shift away from mother tongue instruction had already begun with the implementation of the new “Matatag Curriculum,” which replaced the mother tongue subject with Good Manners and Right Conduct (GMRC) and Reading Comprehension.
However, the law still allows for the optional use of the mother tongue in monolingual settings and must follow several guidelines including the use of official orthography and vocabulary published by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF). To support this initiative, DepEd, in partnership with KWF, is tasked with conducting a language mapping project to properly identify and classify students based on their native language proficiency.
Despite the passage of the new law, Capulong clarified that local languages could still be used as supplementary tools for instruction, especially to assist in student comprehension.
The DepEd-MIMAROPA office is currently awaiting further guidelines from the central office on the full implementation of this new policy.
