Mother tongue

I am  happy with the new policy of the Department of Education (DepEd) for pupils from  kindergarten to grade school are now mandated to  use their mother tongue as the language of instruction.

In Cebu our students shall use  Cebuano.  The new mandate for me is long overdue.

I have long advocated the use of our mother tongue as a medium of instruction in our schools. The notion that we should evolve a national language was disproven by the failure of all past efforts and the decision to designate Tagalog as the  national language.

I  support  the policy that allows the use of different languages as medium of instruction in  different parts of the country.

It’s correct to expect our schools to be  noisy next school year when we can finally hear  small children talking with ease in their  mother tongue.

I remember the story of my nephew’s  son who went to a private school where English was the language of instruction.

The boy cried because his classmates would talk to him in English and he could only speak in Cebuano.

The mandated use of Tagalog as the national language  has diminished many of our local languages instead of nurturing them.

It’s important to preserve local languages as vehicles of our culture and heritage. Through them, we may be able to trace our history in  different parts of the country.

Unfortunately here in Cebu our young generation prefers to speak in English or Tagalog, as if they are   somehow ashamed to speak in their mother tongue. This contributes to the  bastardization or slow death of the Cebuano language.

I really hope the new DepEd policy will help revitalize  the proper use and growth of the Cebuano language, which is so rich.  This is one policy of the Aquino administration that I agree with aside from the introduction of K + 12, the educational reform program that increases the number of years of basic education to 12.

I am  happy to report that schools are seriously looking into implementing  this program despite the unfortunate intervention of politicians who don’t know anything about education. These  politicians keep harping on that  K+12 would  add two more years of education in our system.  That does not necessarily follow  because the program introduces a senior high school level that would qualify students for employment after  graduation. College or a university education is no longer necessary for all except for those qualified to proceed to higher education.

In the University of San Carlos, Rev. Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD, is anticipating a  drastic reduction of enrollment when the K+12 program is implemented and that many faculty members of the university would be transferred to senior high to teach  general course subjects.

University studies would be for specialization. USC is now calling on faculty to prepare for the changes.

Just like the situation in the United States,  our schools  would be classified as a community college, a professional college or a university. Realignments  of departments are expected in order to sustain its existence or viability.

Some departments may even  vanish while others would merge. I am  thankful to Fr. Miranda for boldly and courageously leading and guiding us into this change process.

Everyone should be ready for a major shakeup in the educational landscape. I  hope  our politicians would let  educators do their job.

There’s no stopping the rollout of the K+12  program of the Aquino administration.  All over  the world, only three countries, including the Philippines, have not adopted 12 years of basic education.

Not implementing the program would be  prejudicial to our brothers and sisters. If this isn’t done now, those who  go abroad in the future will be  unable to find work because they lack  educational requirements.