We placed last in the 2019 Trends in Int’l Mathematics and Science Study
TABUK CITY, Kalinga– According to the lead researcher of the Lubuagan Experiment, one of three local empirical studies cited in DepEd Order No. 74, series of 2009, the issuance institutionalizing the Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) as a fundamental education policy and program of the DepEd, has informed this writer that in the experiment, school children were taught to read in the mother tongue, Filipino and in English in Grade 1.
The K to 12 Curriculum introduces reading in Filipino and in English in the first and second semester of Grade 2, respectively.
Interviewed through Messenger on November 6, Dr. Diane Dekker, international literacy and education coordinator, senior literacy and education consultant of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, qualified, however, that had she been aware of the K to 12 Curriculum English beginning reading program, she would have recommended the same timetable.
When this correspondent asked for her reason for her stance considering that their report on the experiment showed that the Grade 1 experimental classes outdid the control classes in reading by 22.7 percent, Dekker declined to answer.
DepEd Order No. 74, series of 2009, states that, along with Lingua Franca Project, the Lubuagan First Language Component or Lubuagan Experiment proved that when learning in the mother tongue, children learn to read more quickly in the first language (mother tongue), learn to speak, read and write more quickly in the second language and acquire competencies in other academic areas more quickly.
During the session of the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture on House Bill No. 6405 which sought the abolition of the MTB-MLE on January 28, 2021, Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, one of the country’s foremost MTB-MLE exponents, said that the Lubuagan Experiment was one of the strongest evidences used to convince policymakers to institutionalize the new language policy.
The DepEd has yet to respond to this correspondent’s letter requesting their side on the revelation of Dekker which was emailed on November 10.
This correspondent inquired from Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan, one of the DepEd’s spokespersons, the rationale of the DepEd in rejecting the Lubuagan Experiment English beginning reading timetable and for introducing the competency in the second semester of Grade 2 in the K to 12 Curriculum instead.
He also asked how Filipino students could be globally competitive as envisioned by the K to 12 Law when they learn to read in the test language in Grade 3 while their counterparts from other countries and even in our local private schools are reading in the assessment language in Grade 1.
With English being the country’s local and international assessment language, the K to 12 Curriculum English beginning reading timetable is tagged as one of the major factors in the country’s poor performance in the 2019 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics and last place finish in the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study because, due to the delay, the Filipino examinees were reading in the test language one and a half years behind takers from other countries who were already reading in their respective test languages.**By Estanislao C. Albano, Jr.
