Roxas bats for use of native
language in elementary schools

SEN. Manuel Roxas II yesterday batted for teaching elementary students in their "mother tongue" to improve their chances of finishing their education and effect a major shift in the educational system.

"Ayon sa mga pag-aaral, ang pagpilit ng paggamit sa classroom ng wikang banyaga sa mga estudyante ay lalo lamang nagiging balakid sa pag-aaral," the Wharton-schooled Roxas said in a statement.

He said students are not given the basic foundation during their early years because they are not taught in the mother tongue, or the language they use at home and in their communities.

At present, only 26 percent of Filipino children have access to education in their mother tongue, among them the Lubuan, Kalinga schoolchildren who are taught in the Ka-linga language in Grades 1 to 3 classrooms for reading, writing and teaching English and Filipino.

"Their test scores show better results than those in other districts where the medium of instruction used was English. They are also more participative in class, and their attendance and receptiveness have improved," Roxas said.

Roxas' stand echoed that of language scholars worldwide that the use of the children's native language in elementary classrooms improved their literacy and critical skills. This position, however, was shunted aside by supporters of English as medium of instruction in Filipino classrooms when horror stories regarding the fractured English of call center applicants began to surface.

Roxas also said 10 years of basic education, compared to other countries' 12 years, is not enough. This is the reason, he said, why the first two years of college are spent "trying to fill the gaps in the early years."

He said that not teaching students in their own language is tantamount to shortchanging them. "Our students are made to believe that the education they are getting now is enough to prepare them for the increasingly knowledge-based world, when it is not at all competitive. Lugi sila," he said.