Pag-review ng “2001 Revisyon ng Alfabeto” & H.B. 4701

Today is Nov. 6, 2006. I found the following item buried deep in the KWF website:

Pag-review ng “2001 Revisyon ng Alfabeto,” Pinagtibay ng DepEd

Inilabas ng Kagawaran ng Edukasyon ang Kautusang Pangkagawaran Blg. 42, s. 2006 upang itigil muna ang implementasyon ng “2001 Revisyon ng Alfabeto at Patnubay sa Ispeling ng Wikang Filipino.” Ito ay ayon na rin sa kahilingan ng Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino bunga ng negatibong feedback mula sa mga guro, estudyante at iba pang mga tagagamit ng wika.

Kaugnay nito, itinagubilin sa lahat na pansamantalang sangguniin ang “1987 Alpabeto at Patnubay sa Ispeling” sa paghahanda o pagsulat ng mga kagamitan sa pagtuturo at sa Korespondensiya Opisyal samantalang ang Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino ay nagsasagawa ng pag-review sa “2001 Revisyon sa Alfabeto at Patnubay sa Ispeling.”

Nakasaad din ang daglian at malawakang pagpapalaganap sa naturang kautusan.

The actual Department of Education order, DO No. 42, s. 2006, dated October 9, 2006, published at the DepEd website, is as follows:

1. Ang Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino ay kasalukuyang nagsasagawa ng pag-review sa "2001 Revisyon ng Alfabeto at Patnubay sa Ispeling ng Wikang Filipino". Ito ay bunga ng mga negatibong feedback mula sa mga guru, estudyante, magulang at iba pang tagagamit ng wika kaugnay ng nilalaman ng binagong patnubay sa ispeling at ang implementasyon nito.

2. Kaugnay nito, itinatagubilin sa lahat ng kinauukulan na itigil muna ang implementasyon ng nabanggit na revisyon habang nirereview ito at pansamantalang sangguniin ang 1987 Alpabeto at Patnubay sa Ispeling (Kautusang Pangkagawaran Blg. 81, s. 1987) para sa paghahanda o pagsulat ng mga sangguniang kagamitan sa pagtuturo at sa mga korespondensya opisyal.

3. Kalakip nito ang 1987 Patnubay sa Wikang Filipino na binuo ng Linangan ng mga Wika sa Pilipinas na ngayon ay Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino.

4. Hinihiling ang daglian at malawakang pagpapalaganap ng Kautusang ito.

[The pdf. file copy of the above order is followed by 16 pages of "ANG ALPABETO AT PATNUBAY SA ISPELING NG WIKANG FILIPINO" which was previously attached to DO #81, s. 1987 dated August 6, 1987.]

I'm not quite sure if this action was influenced in any way by H.B. 4701 which recently passed on third reading. H.B. 4701 makes English the mandatory medium of instruction (MOI) "in all academic subjects in the elementary grades from Grade III to Grade VI and in all levels in the secondary." It's now up for consideration in the Senate.

In his article, "Improving English Competence" (also at the KWF website), Edilberto C. de Jesus assails the bill as an "unreflective, knee-jerk reaction to the problem" of declining English skills. "The current MOI in most public schools is Filipino," De Jesus notes, but, "for, perhaps, the majority of the children, Filipino is not the mother tongue. Most children... start their education in a language [Filipino] 'foreign' to them."

Some of the sponsors of H.B. 4701 come from various regions of the country whose mother tongue is neither Tagalog nor Filipino. "If they want the children in their respective regions to learn more effectively," de Jesus writes, "they should support a bill that would fund the use of the mother tongue as the MOI, ideally, through the six years of primary school, while the children are also learning Filipino and English as second and third languages."

De Jesus pointed out that UNESCO and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) had been supporting research on language learning for over fifty years--that their research studies reached an unsurprising conclusion: "Children who begin their education in the mother tongue make a better start, and continue to perform better, than those for whom school starts with a new language".

We definitely should take steps to improve English-language competence among Filipinos, according to de Jesus. He, however, cites the need to improve the level of English competence of teachers who teach English as a priority. "How... can a law that raises the bar beyond a level not yet achieved," says de Jesus, "help to improve performance?"

There is no doubt that English is the global language. Many countries around the world are investing heavily to promote the learning of English. However, we should not lose sight of the importance of mother tongue based-schooling for educational quality.

As for Filipino, it's still the current MOI in most public schools. H.B. 4701, if it eventually becomes law, is definitely going to affect it. We await the result of DepEd's review of the "2001 Revisyon ng Alfabeto" with bated breath. As of now, there are very few clues as to where Filipino is headed except that thing about the "negatibong feedback mula sa mga guru, estudyante, magulang at iba pang tagagamit ng wika."