By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
The four-hour virtual forum on the Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) policy, organized by the Department of Education (DepEd) and the USAID on February 22, 2021, where this letter-writer was one of those invited to present position statements, clearly showed that there are no cogent, no evidence-based answers to the emerging conclusion that the said language policy is a colossal blunder.
The leading advocates of the MTB-MLE here and abroad including lawyer Magtanggol Gunigundo I who, as member of the 15th Congress, authored the bill that would become the new language policy and key officials of the DepEd led by Secretary Leonor Briones were on hand but the only reaction to this letter writer’s position statement which proved that the language policy failed to deliver on all its promised benefits listed in DepEd Order No. 74, series of 2009, was the comment of retired University of the Philippines linguistics professor Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco that this letter writer has forgotten that in 100 years the previous language policies have not delivered. The comment is nothing but an inane, general and surprisingly unprofessional statement borne of no factual, or evidentiary support.
Dr. Nolasco ignored the specific finding earlier presented in the forum by Sarah Pouezevara of the RTI International Development Group that the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) they conducted in 2019 showed there were more learners who could not read that year than there were nonreaders in 2013, the first year of the MTB-MLE implementation. This corroborated this letter writer’s evidences that the MTB-MLE utterly failed to deliver on its promise to make the learning of reading quicker one of which is the finding in the 2019 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) study that 27 percent of Filipino Grade 5 pupils could not read.
Moreover, Dr. Nolasco was mum to this writer’s observation that more than two months after the results of the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) which completely destroyed the MTB-MLE promise of better scores in the TIMSS and other international assessments were released, the DepEd and other MTB-MLE advocates have yet to explain how come the MTB-MLE products in 2019 ate the dust of the 2003 batch scoring 61 points or 17.03 percent lower in Mathematics and 83 points or 25 percent lower in Science than the latter. The Philippines was last in both subjects in 2019, while it was third to the last in both subjects in 2003.
Indeed and in fact, near the end of its ninth school year of implementation, the MTB-MLE is a huge zero on all its promises. Nevertheless, sad and unfortunately, the DepEd and other advocates are still bent on ramming the policy down the throats of the Filipino school children, not minding the incalculable harm it has inflicted and will continue to inflict upon them—in effect, making them guinea pigs.
In a desperate bid to involve reason and sanity in the discussion and decision-making, retired UP Education professor Dr. Eduardo Alicias, Jr. and this letter-writer columnist are hereby inviting the advocates of the MTB-MLE to a public debate (scientific discourse and intercourse) on the impact of this policy anywhere, anytime.
Dr. Alicias has written the published book “The Underlying Science, the Utility of Acquiring Early English Proficiency: The Flawed Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) Policy,” c2014, Central Book Supply, Inc., ISBN 978-971-011-903-5; and refuted the primer of Dr. Nolasco on the MTB-MLE titled “Never again: A nation of ‘5th graders’” in Philippine Daily Inquirers August 23, 2015 issue with his counter-article “Yes to Filipino-English bilingualism” in the September 20, 2015 issue also of this paper. Dr. Nolasco never rebutted Dr. Alicias’ article.**
