By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
The Matatag Curriculum starts the English reading competency in the first semester of Grade 2 which is an improvement on the K to 12 Curriculum which introduces the competency in the second semester of Grade 2. Nonetheless, the timetable all but guarantees that Filipino students will remain in the bottom of international assessments because they will be reading in the test language one year later than their counterparts from other countries read in their respective test languages.
With the Matatag Curriculum retaining English as primary medium of instruction from Grade 4 onwards and the fact that the rule is for the primary medium of instruction in the grade tested to be the test language, English is our test language in all the international assessments the country is participating in and intending to join listed in DepEd Order No. 29, series of 2017.
The international practice is for schoolchildren to be taught to read in their primary medium of instruction in Grade 1. For some countries like Vietnam, Japan and Singapore, most children are already reading when they arrive in Grade 1.
The Matatag Curriculum defers English and Filipino reading competencies to Grade 2 to give way to developing first language literacy in Grade 1. The Department of Education (DepEd) justifies the prioritization of the first language by citing a World Bank (WB) finding that literacy in the first language “promotes learning outcomes in the L1 and in the subsequent second language (L2), as well as in other academic subjects, and promotes the development of general cognitive abilities” and “can facilitate the learning of a second language.”
In giving credence to the WB study, the DepEd disregards two compelling local historical facts:
First, since the time of Americans until the DepEd scrapped the “No Read, No Move” policy in 2001, Filipino children have been successfully taught to read in English in Grade 1. They also started learning English the moment they entered Grade 1 and they were unquestionably more proficient in English than the products of the Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) which exclusively teaches first language literacy in Grade 1.
Second, from its launch in SY 2012-2013 until now, the MTB-MLE is a total failure as detailed in the letter “Use of first language or mother tongue does not work in the Philippines” (9/5/23). Please note that the letter has not been refuted.
The DepEd also knows that Filipino students struggle in reading in English. DepEd Memorandum No. 173, series of 2019, states: “Low achievement levels in English, Math and Science appear to be caused by gaps in learners’ reading comprehension. This means there are many low performing learners who could not comprehend Math and Science word problems that is written in English.”
In her briefing regarding the performance of the country in the PISA titled “Situating PISA with Sulong EduKalidad,” then Secretary Leonor Briones had admitted that based on the results of the PISA, “reading in English is clearly a weakness of our learners.”
It is no brainer that the realities described by DepEd Memorandum No. 173, series of 2019 and by Briones would have been significantly minimized had our students been reading in English starting in Grade 1. And yet in defiance of logic and historical facts, here we are, a tailender in international assessments, obstinately insisting that our students should learn to read in the test language a year later than children of other countries do.
Given the strong correlation between performance in reading and success or failure in academics (“Reading for change: Performance and engagement across countries,” page 15), the one year gap in reading experience in the test language is insurmountable.
While the Matatag Curriculum is still being pilot tested, the DepEd should be made to explain how the curriculum could fulfill the mandate of Section 2 (a) of Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 for the offering of “quality education that is globally competitive” to our students when it imposes a one year reading handicap on them vis-a-vis their counterparts from other countries.
(This piece appeared in the Letters of the October 24, 2023 Philippine Daily Inquirer. The update is that until now, there is still no word from either the DepEd or Congress if the English reading competency will be returned to Grade 1 despite the fact that the usage of the MTB-MLE has already been discontinued through RA No. 12027 enacted last year. The delay in the introduction of the competency by one and half was one of the insane changes in the curriculum occasioned by the inception of the MTB-MLE in SY 2012-2013.)**
