Filipina Soul

Using English in public schools is a violation of the Philippine constitution.

It also deteriorates the education system in the Philippines and puts the poorer students at a disadvantage. Requiring its use i schools ironically deters the students’ abilities to learn the language.

The use of English alienates students from their cultural heritage, impairs their emotional security and self-worth, and “results in inferiority complex among lower-class children who are stigmatized for using the native tongue.”

Well-known educators, writers and national artists signed a petition (pdf) asking the Philippine Supreme Court to block Executive Order No. 210, which requires the use of English as the medium of instruction in Philippine public schools.

According to the petitioners, the use of Filipino and other regional languages to teach the students would help them learn better.

Here is the opposite view:

The other side of the coin, however, is even more threatening to the poor. If we remove English as a medium of instruction in our schools, it is a certainty that the lower-income students will never learn to speak English well. The children of the well-to-do will find alternative means of education and of being exposed to English in their daily lives (at home, with their peers, through television and video programs, etc.) Then we shall worsen the inequity in economic opportunities because there is no doubt that those who are fluent in English in this shrinking world of Internet and free trade will have wider employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.

The youth have all the chances to speak and listen to Filipino in their day-to-day lives: conversation with members of their families and friends, going to movies in Filipino, watching television programs in Filipino, etc. The vast majority of the youth, however, do not have enough occasions in their normal lives to speak and listen to English. The classroom is the only place where they can be obliged to speak nothing but English. [source: Bernardo Villegas]

When President Arroyo was asked about the legality of her new medium of instruction policy, Manila Times quoted her:

“After all, the Constitution specifies that the use of Filipino as language of instruction is subject to provisions of the law and as the Congress may deem appropriate. Therefore, until Congress enacts a law mandating Filipino as the language of instruction” she could give the order to make English the “primary medium of instruction.”

Formder Undersecretary of Education Isagani R. Cruz has this to say about the debate:

In reality, however, despite the Constitution, the presidential order, and the Department orders, there is only one language of instruction in practically all classrooms in the country. It is Taglish, a non-language that is variously labeled as code-switching, pidgin, or a lingua franca, featuring a still-unsystematized mixture of Tagalog, English, and vernacular languages of various regions.

I’ve asked a similar question before, and throwing this question to us again, because it does seem the debate is not settled yet.

What do you think? Should we use English, or Filipino, as the required medium of instruction in all public schools?

Or maybe it’s Taglish?

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