SENATOR Pia Cayetano urged the Department of Education to review its measures in implementing Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education under Republic Act 10533 or the K to 12 Law.

Cayetano encouraged DepEd officials to embrace the Filipinos’ multilingual background to communicate better.

The senator noted that of the more than 16,000 schools, only 10 percent were able to comply with the minimum requirement that will set the condition for the effective roll-out of the MTB-MLE program.

“Is it time to rethink how we are doing it? If we can’t roll it out this way, what other ways could we roll out an effective language program?” Cayetano asked.

She added that there is nothing in the law that prevents teachers from using English to improve the learners’ proficiency in the language.

Education Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said while DepEd will continue to use the mother tongue for K to 3, the department will align the future curriculum with the pronouncement of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for a full bilingual program.