Group asks Marcos: Reconsider English-only education policy

A group of Filipino language advocates are calling on President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to revisit the use of English language as the sole medium of instruction in basic education.

In a statement, Tanggol Wika pointed out that any change in curriculum content would be “useless” if the government carries on with the “illogical policy” of using English to teach subjects like Science and Mathematics.

“We are all aware of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 results that sadly relegated our 15-year-olds to the bottom heap with regard to scores in Reading, Mathematics and Science,” the group said.

Vice President-elect and incoming Education Secretary Sara Duterte on Monday said Marcos instructed her to review the K to 12 program.

In a separate press conference, Marcos said that he told Duterte to focus on training teachers and start teaching in English.

English should be shelved

While Tanggol Wika welcomed Marcos’ instruction to review the K to 12 program, the group disagrees with the idea that English should be the sole language to be used in teaching subjects in basic education, as it resulted in Filipino students’ low performance in international assessments.

Further, the group pointed out that Marcos’ plan to “double down” rather than “progressively supplant” the use of English as the official mode of instruction should be “shelved” to improve the quality of education in the country.

“Other than insufficient funds for public education, the government’s perennial obsession with the forced use of English in education is to blame for the current mess we are in,” it said.

“International and local standardized tests show that many of our students have insufficient competence in using English in academic settings, yet our government insists on using it as a medium of instruction and as language of assessment/testing too,” it added.

Students' low performance

In 2019, the Philippines performed the poorest out of 79 countries in a reading literacy assessment conducted by the inter-government group Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In 2018, the OECD administered a two-hour Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam to 600,000 15-year-old students around the world.

PISA results showed that Filipino students scored a mean of 340 points in the reading comprehension exam, which falls way below the OECD average of 487 points. —LBG, GMA News