Nation

GROUP URGES GOV’T NOT TO SCRAP MOTHER TONGUE INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS

/ 1 September 2022

THE MOVEMENT for Safe, Equitable, Quality and Relevant Education on Wednesday called on the government not to suspend the Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education saying that it is a scientifically supported policy.

SEQuRe Education said that its implementation of mother tongue instruction in Kinder to Grade 3 is crucial in learning recovery.

It added that using the children’s mother tongue is the easiest possible way to help them learn as there won’t be a language barrier in their early years of learning.

“Instead of suspending the MTB-MLE, the government should address the problems in its implementation and promote its development. Sufficient funds should be allocated to produce quality teaching and learning materials in various local languages,” SEQuRe said in a statement.

The group added that the government should spend more on education to alleviate the poor school performance and bad conditions of teachers. This will help boost the quality of education in the country.

“These are bigger problems that the government should be addressing. In traversing the road to education recovery, the MTB-MLE should rather be seen as a vehicle to improve the quality of our education,” it added.

Pasig City Representative Romulo Roman proposed the suspension of MTB-MLE to make the country more competitive in the international community.