MULING binigyang-diin ni Baguio City Rep. Mark Go ang kahalagahan na maibalik sa Kinder hanggang Grade 3 ang paggamit ng English at Filipino bilang medium of instruction.

Sinabi ni Go na bagama’t kinikilala niya ang magandang intensiyon ng Republic Act 10533, partikular ang probisyon sa pagpapatupad ng Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education policy, dapat pa ring timbangin ang bawat epekto nito.

Ayon kay Go, kailangang magkaroon ng administrative feasibility at readiness para sa polisiya lalo’t sa ngayon ay tila hindi pa handa ang education system dahil wala pang sapat na teacher training, textbooks, at iba pang instructional materials.

Idinagdag ng mambabatas na dapat ding ikonsidera ang magkakaibang regional mother tongue at ethno-linguistic backgrounds ng bawat estudyante.

At panghuli, iginiit ni Go na dapat aralin ang epekto nito sa English proficiency at reading comprehension.

“Since the implementation of the program, the Philippines ranked lowest out of 79 countries in Reading Comprehension based on the Programme for International Student Assessment rating. Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics found that 27 percent of the Filipino Grade 5 pupils who participated in the program were located in Band 2 and below or  they are still at the stage of matching single words to an image of a familiar object or concept,” paliwanag ni Go.

Tinukoy rin niya ang National Achievement Test ng mga Grade 6 student na bumagsak sa 5.71 o 14.14 percent kumpara sa mga nakaraang taon.

Noong 2020, bumagsak din ng pitong puwesto o nasa ika-27 pwesto ang Filipinas sa English Proficiency Index ng international education company na Education First.

“In terms of content, the materials are not sufficient to cater to all the diverse languages within a province. In essence there is not enough data at present to support the continued use of this modality and data. In fact, studies that have been surfacing reveal that this modality may be counterproductive to the essence by which this program was originally intended,” pagbibigay-diin pa niya.

Una na ring inihain ni Go ang House Bill 6405 na nagsusulong sa pagbasura sa Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education.