Beginning School Year (SY) 2024-2025, mother tongue will no longer be a separate subject according to the DepEd.
DepEd removed the mother tongue as a subject in the newly-launched MATATAG K to 10 Curriculum to be pilot tested this year and will be implemented in phases starting SY 2024-2025.
Mother tongue, DepEd clarified, will remain as a medium of teaching and learning in schools.
‘Confusing’ Mother Tongue subject removed; to remain as a medium of instruction --- DepEd
Aug 10, 2023 04:01 PM
At a glance
Mother tongue, as a learning area or a subject, has been removed from the adjusted K to 10 curriculum launched by the Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday, Aug. 10.
“What we removed was mother tongue as a subject but not mother tongue as a medium of instruction pursuant to the K to 12 law,” said DepEd Undersecretary and Spokesperson Michael Poa in a press briefing after the formal launch of the new K to 10 curriculum.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2023/8/10/dep-ed-launches-matatag-k-to-10-curriculum
Bureau of Curriculum Development Director Joyce Andaya explained the mother tongue, as a subject is “actually something that can be explained also or taken up” in other learning areas.
DepEd noted that there were also “some issues” in the implementation of the mother tongue as a subject.
“Basically, yung (the) mother tongue as a subject has caused some confusion among teachers in the field especially in the Luzon area,” Undersecretary for Curriculum and Teaching Gina Gonong explained.
In the current curriculum, there is a Filipino subject then the Mother Tongue subject. “They [teachers] are asking what’s the difference of the two subjects,” she said.
This “confusion,” Gonong said, is among the reasons why DepEd decided to remove the mother tongue as a subject in the adjusted K to 10 curriculum.
Even before DepEd formally launched the revised K to 10 curriculum, teachers’ groups have been opposing the removal of Mother Tongue subject in the new curriculum.
For the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines, scrapping the Mother Tongue is “counter-productive to learning” because this serves as a subject that maximizes the home language as an effective language of instruction.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/10/17/group-hits-deped-for-abandoning-mother-tongue-as-subject/
Removing Mother Tongue as a subject, ACT added, will only “make learning recovery more difficult.”
For Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC), improving the implementation of the mother tongue as a subject is ideal instead of outright suspending it.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2023/7/15/teachers-urged-gov-t-to-support-not-suspend-mother-tongue-education
DepEd said the MATATAG K to 10 Curriculum will be pilot tested this year before its rollout next school year.