207 solons support restoring English as medium of instruction
A total of 207 members of the House of Representatives have signed up as co-authors of a bill proposing to reinstate English as the medium of instruction in Philippine schools.
"We are pleased to report that we now have the signatures of 206 members of the House as co-authors of the bill, plus my own," said Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, the bill's chief proponent.
Gullas, an educator, said he is definitely counting on the House to formally pass the bill shortly. "It is good as passed already," he said, noting that the authors collectively comprise 86 percent of the 240-member chamber.
The Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) has actually adopted the English bill as a high-priority measure, according to Gullas.
"In a recent LEDAC meeting, no less than President Macapagal-Arroyo and Education Secretary Jesli Lapus pushed for the bill's swift passage," Gullas pointed out.
In the previous Congress, the House, voting 132-7, approved the English bill on third and final reading. This was in September 2006, or just eight months before the mid-term elections.
Sadly, the Senate failed to act on the bill simply because the smaller chamber did not have a functional education committee then, Gullas said.
"The (education) committee chair was then Senator Juan Flavier, who openly indicated that he could no longer perform the job because he was also Senate President Pro Tempore. He was busy presiding over the Senate sessions as the other senators became preoccupied with their reelection bids," Gullas said.
In any case, Gullas expressed confidence that both the House and the Senate would have enough time to approve the English bill this time around.
Under House Bill 305:
English, Filipino or the regional/native language may be used as the teaching language in all subjects from preschool to Grade 2;
English would be the teaching language in all academic subjects from Grade 3 to Grade 6, and in all levels of high school;
English and Filipino would be taught as separate subjects in all levels of elementary and high school;
The current language policy prescribed by the Commission on Higher Education would be maintained in college; and
English would be enlivened as the language of interaction in schools.
The bill also requires English as the language of assessment in all government examinations as well as entrance tests in all public schools and state universities and colleges.
Once enacted, the bill would supersede Department of Education (Deped) Order No. 25, which proclaimed a "bilingual" teaching policy.
Meant to develop "a nation competent in the use of English and Filipino," the bilingual policy was adopted in 1974. Accordingly, the subjects of social studies, character education, values education, industrial arts, home economics, physical education were taught using Filipino while other subjects were done in English.
Upon implementation, however, Gullas lamented that under the bilingual policy, subjects that were supposed to be taught in English were actually done in "Taglish," or a combination of English and the local dialect.
"As a language is best learned through constant exposure and use we have to prescribe again by law, and not simply by administrative fiat, the restoration of English as medium of instruction, except of course, in Filipino taught as a subject," Gullas stressed.
While most Filipinos are convinced that English mastery leads to better job opportunities, national proficiency in the language has declined by 10 percentage points over the last 12 years, according to a 2006 survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
The survey showed that only two out of three Filipino adults or 65 percent understood spoken and written English. Some 14 percent said they were not competent at all in spoken and written English.
In previous surveys by the SWS -- in 1993 and 2000 -- three out of four Filipino adults or 75 percent said they understood spoken and written English. Only seven percent said they were not competent at all in spoken and written English.
A study by DepEd also showed that "only 19 out of every 100 teachers have the confidence and competence to teach English." This has prompted the government to allot hundreds of millions of pesos every year to provide for the in-service retooling of teachers in English. (PNA)