ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro on Tuesday stressed the need to strengthen language and history subjects in basic education.

Castro recommended a nationalist, scientific and mass-oriented curriculum and system of education.

The abandonment of the Mother Tongue subject from kindergarten to grade 3 and the removal of Philippine History as a separate subject in high school will not help improve the quality of education, she said.

“Focusing basic education to create ’employable’ students by removing Mother Tongue in Kinder to grade 3 and Philippine History in High School does not provide holistic education, it simply creates robots that are prevented from using critical thinking and are taught to simply obey and follow,” Castro said, adding that removing the Mother Tongue subjects “are steps backward.”

“The education department seems to give little to no importance to subjects crucial for critical thinking and genuine nationalism,” the lawmaker added.

“Ang pag-abandona sa Mother Tongue bilang asignatura at hindi pagkilala ng kahalagahan nito sa mas malalim na pagkatuto ng mga mag-aaral ay pagtalikod sa iba’t ibang wika ng bansa at ang ambag ng mga ito sa iba’t ibang kultura na mayroon ang ating bansa,” Castro said.