The cousin of my friend announced his disregard about Rep. Liza Maza's move to make Filipino the official medium of instruction in Philippine schools. Although I agree at some points (UP proved how Filipino as medium worked wonders), there are still a lot of loopholes in the prospect.
For one, there is no concrete proof that the whole country could speak, and much more understand, Filipino well. There are more than seven thousand islands in the country and there are hundreds of local languages and dialects. I, for one, know areas in Luzon - Luzon where most Tagalogs live - which cannot speak or understand Filipino or Tagalog. Ok, it is arguable that these areas might be remote and totally far-flung, but isn't the whole point of searching for an official medium of instruction about reaching out to those locations? Don't they also deserve to have a say in all of these, since most of these areas are those which are in desperate of the government's attention and support to progress?
I remember one of my professors saying that we should employ the mother tongues in teaching in the primary levels. This way, the children will not get shocked and left behind in case that they couldn't speak English or Filipino. This entails the gradual teaching and developing their other language skills, which will be easier for the teachers since they already have a common ground in communication.
I do think that Rep. Liza Maza's proposal could work, but only in certain areas. I think they should test it first on laboratory or experimental schools (which are really designed for such purposes) before implementing it on full scale. This way they could test the idea and not get lashed in case it didn't work out.
Ok, maybe I am no authority in this thing, but at least I have my opinions with their alternatives. Maybe I'll go read more about it and learn new things or whatever.
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