Senate passes new bill that makes ‘mother tongue’ instruction optional in schools

Schools will soon stop the use of mother tongue or regional languages from kindergarten to Grade 3 after the Senate approved on third and final reading Tuesday, July 23, 2024, a bill seeking to discontinue its mandatory use.

Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Ramon Revilla, Jr. introduced Senate Bill No. 2457 or “Discontinuing the Use of the Mother Tongue” as the medium of Instruction.

The bill proposes reverting to Filipino and English as the primary languages of instruction, in line with the 1987 Constitution. Regional languages or local dialects shall only serve as an auxiliary or supplementary media of instruction.

“Mother tongue as the medium of instruction is not a one-size-fits-all solution for every classroom,” said Gatchalian, sponsor of the bill. He acknowledged it is effective only in monolingual environments where students share and speak the same native language.

Gatchalian cited studies by the Department of Education (DepEd), indicating that mother tongue education works well in rural, homogeneous school settings but shows limited effectiveness in multilingual classrooms.

The bill outlines that regional languages will only serve as auxiliary instructional tools. It permits the use of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in monolingual classes under specific conditions.

These include the development and publication of an official orthography by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), an officially documented vocabulary, relevant literature and teaching materials, and trained teachers proficient in the mother tongue.

Orthography refers to the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to their accepted usage and correct spelling.

DepEd, in consultation with the KWF, shall be tasked to develop a language mapping policy within one year once the bill is enacted into law. This is to accurately identify and classify students based on their mother tongue.

This framework aims to systematically determine the existence of monolingual classes each school year. Three years after the law’s implementation, DepEd will review the optional use of MTB-MLE in monolingual classes.

This review will cover learner assessments, teacher recruitment and training, resource development, and program funding. DepEd will report its findings and recommendations to the President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives by June 30 following the review year.

“The review shall further include recommendations on whether to continue or discontinue the optional use of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction in monolingual classes based on the review conducted by the DepEd,” according to the bill.