A group on Monday, Oct. 17, expressed concern over the decision of the Department of Education (DepED) to remove Mother Tongue as a subject noting that the step will “make learning recovery more difficult.”
“After two years of failed distance learning wherein many students did not effectively learn how to read and write and there is learning retrogression, it is all the more appropriate to capitalize on the benefits that Mother Tongue can contribute in swiftly bridging learning gaps and recovering learning loss in the primary grades,” said Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Spokesperson Roel Mape said.
ACT raised the concern after DepED Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said before the Senate basic education panel that it will “do away” with the 50 minutes of Mother Tongue as a subject.
For the group, DepED’s decision to remove the subject from the curriculum shows how the agency “lacks real appreciation” of the Mother Tongue’s role in learning.
Mape stressed that the Mother Tongue subject is the first step in children's literacy --- noting that learning using the language they speak and fully understand will help them write, read and comprehend more easily.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/09/16/deped-urged-to-improve-not-suspend-implementation-of-mother-tongue-based-learning/
Densing, however, noted that while DepEd’s Curriculum and Instruction decided to remove the Mother Tongue as a subject, the mother tongue of the learners --- which includes their dialect --- will still be used as a “medium of instruction” as mandated under the K to 12 law.
ACT, on the other hand, said using the mother tongue as a medium of instruction is “not enough.”
“Mahalaga ang literasiyang Mother Toungue para maging mas epektibong medium of instruction ito sa ibang subject, at maging mas mabilis at epektibo ang pagtuturo ng pagsasalita, pagsulat, pagbasa at komprehensyon sa iba pang wika (Mother Tongue literacy is important so that it becomes a more effective medium of instruction in other subjects, and teaching speaking, writing, reading and comprehension in other languages becomes faster and more effective),” Mape said.
Mape also pointed out that many countries have proven the benefit of the Mother Tongue in education, thus, its relevance should not be questioned.
“Ang dapat kuwestiyunin ay ang kababawan ng pag-unawa ng ating mga opisyales dito, ang kapabayaan nila sa pagpapatupad ng programa, at ang layunin nila sa likod ng tulak na abandonahin ang Mother Tongue (What should be questioned is the shallowness of our officials' understanding of this, their negligence in the implementation of the program, and their purpose behind the push to abandon the Mother Tongue),” Mape ended.
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https://mb.com.ph/2022/06/23/group-to-marcos-yes-to-k-to-12-review-but-no-to-english-only-policy/