The Best Medium to be Used for Instruction English or Filipino Position paper
The Best Medium to be Used for Instruction: English or Filipino? Posted by Markleen on September 27, 2011 at 9:15 AM
Introduction The poor quality of basic education is reflected in the low achievement scores of Filipino students. International test results like 2003 TIMSS rank the Philippines 34th out of 38 countries in HS II Science. For grade 4, the Philippines ranked 23rd out of 25 participating countries in both Math & Science. In 2008, even with only the science high schools participating in the Advanced Mathematics category, the Philippines was ranked lowest. According to the EDCOM Report, the quality of Philippine education is declining continuously. Because of this, the EDCOM recommended to enlarge and enrich technical/vocational education and make the vernacular and Filipino the media of instruction for basic education. Is this really the appropriate respond to the said alarming report? Medium of instruction is a language used in teaching. In the Philippines, both English and Filipino are used by the teachers to cater learning among the students. Some critics said that using English in public schools is a violation of the Philippine Constitution. They even signed a petition asking the Supreme Court to block Executive Order No. 210 which requires the use of English as a medium of instruction in Philippine public schools. When former President Gloria 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.” It is very clear that our government is still confused as to what medium of instruction must be used to respond the alarming state of our education system. In the
Introduction The poor quality of basic education is reflected in the low achievement scores of Filipino students. International test results like 2003 TIMSS rank the Philippines 34th out of 38 countries in HS II Science. For grade 4, the Philippines ranked 23rd out of 25 participating countries in both Math & Science. In 2008, even with only the science high schools participating in the Advanced Mathematics category, the Philippines was ranked lowest. According to the EDCOM Report, the quality of Philippine education is declining continuously. Because of this, the EDCOM recommended to enlarge and enrich technical/vocational education and make the vernacular and Filipino the media of instruction for basic education. Is this really the appropriate respond to the said alarming report? Medium of instruction is a language used in teaching. In the Philippines, both English and Filipino are used by the teachers to cater learning among the students. Some critics said that using English in public schools is a violation of the Philippine Constitution. They even signed a petition asking the Supreme Court to block Executive Order No. 210 which requires the use of English as a medium of instruction in Philippine public schools. When former President Gloria 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.” It is very clear that our government is still confused as to what medium of instruction must be used to respond the alarming state of our education system. In the