By Aura Sison

The House of Representatives approved a bill on Monday, February 6, that cites the suspension on the use of mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) from kindergarten through Grade 3. 

Two hundred forty lawmakers voted in favor of House Bill 6717, which would put The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013’s requirement that schools employ the mother tongue as the primary instructional medium on hold. ​​

The rationale underlying the proposal is that the suspension would allow the Department of Education (DepEd) and local school districts to develop sufficient resources to fully implement the usage of the mother tongue.

The newly-approved bill requires the DepEd to collaborate with the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino to work on instructional materials — specifically books, teaching materials, and supplies to be used, in order to to effectively return mother tongue-based teaching to young learners. 

It cites “Provided that Filipino Sign Language shall remain the medium of instruction for students with pertinent disabilities, and provided further that the use of the mother tongue in schools where it is assessed to be effective shall continue.”

The motion was strongly opposed by lawmakers coming from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT-Teachers), Kabataan, and Gabriela party-lists and netizens reacted to the motions saying lack of materials cannot serve as an excuse to halt MTB-MLE mode of instructions given the Intelligence Funds granted onto the education sector. 

Thumbnail from Earl Valenzuela