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MARIA MERCEDES “CHED” ARZADONCOLLEGE OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

RIDING INTO THE FINAL WAVE OF EFA:

INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MOTHER

TONGUE EDUCATION IN THE

PHILIPPINESComparative & International Education Conference 2014

March 10-15, 2014; Sheraton Centre, Toronto, Canada

Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education Policy in Philippine Education

• The Philippines is the only country in Asia with very strong support for policy and action for MTBMLE (Kosonen 2012)

• Department of Education Order 54 (2009) and Republic Act 10533 (2013) --the learner’s mother tongue as medium of instruction in all subject areas, language of literacy, and subject area from kindergarten up - grade 3, transitioning up to gr 6

• 16 million pupils

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Drastic shift in the language of learning policy towards MTBMLE

Objectives

• Analyze the historical context, including the influence of EFA, that facilitated the institutionalization of MTBMLE in the Philippines

• Describe the advocacy and coalition building processes for MTBMLE

Sources:autonarratives as member of the

MLE advocacy group; interviews with key movers in EFA and MTBMLE, email exchanges, minutes of meetings, DepEdmemos, reports

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Long and difficult wait

• Since 1925 through 2008, a series of educational reform proposal had included the use of the local language

– Resulted to short-lived programs

– Weak policy support

• Privileging of English and Filipino (national language)

• Regional languages only as auxiliary medium of instruction

Socio-historical context

• Greater demand for English proficiency in labor (migrant labor and business process outsourcing/call centers)

• Weakening influence of nationalism (restoration of independence; period of peace)

• Decentralization in governance

• Commitment to Education for All 2015

• Various education reform initiatives

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Education for ALL Plan of Action 1991

• Decentralized school governance

• Alternatives for adult illiterates and school leavers thru nonformal education and equivalency programs

• Making every child a reader

• School feeding programs

Resulted to various national policies and education reform programs

Phil EFA Report 2008 “Not much progress”

In fact, access indicators in both elementary and secondary education show declining trends. It is almost mid-term for the Global EFA 2015 and the Philippines may find itself lagging behind with a discouraging performance.

Lack of political consensus, frequent leadership change, tight fiscal situation, over-dependence on external financing, high population growth rate, inability to capitalize on proven education innovations, and lack of sound social marketing strategy for education programs are likely to undermine sector reforms (Rodriguez)

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The local language issue in EFA

• High dropout rate

– Due to lack of personal interest (35% among 6-15yo)

– Prevalent among indigenous people groups

• Poor reading outcomes - reading without comprehension, reading delays

• Low level thinking skills especially in Math and Science

Enabling global support

• UNESCO support for the use of the mother tongue in education (Advocacy Kit for Multilingual Education; EFA Global Monitoring report 2009)

• MLE international conferences affirming various MLE initiatives

• Availability of international studies

• Affirmation of the Philippine initiatives

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The success of our advocacy for MTBMLE deserves a deeper analysis and appreciation. It's one of the success stories in advocacy.

Edicio dela TorreChair, Philippine EFA Committee

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Consensus building in the lifeworld rests on four validity claims

1. Rightness – is it ethical based on common norms?

2. Truth – is it based on empirical propositions?

3. Comprehensibility – is it mutually understandable?

4. Sincerity – is there mutuality, trust and openness?

Jurgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action

English-Only Policy

• President Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order 210 mandating the use of English in 2002

• English Only Bill at the Congress (2006)

• Sparked resistance and facilitated coalition building

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Organizing the MTBMLE Alliance

• teacher educators, linguists, researchers, policymakers, social scientists, artists, writers, and development workers in the government, academe and NGOs

• Grassroots language organizations

• Online communities

Historical Context: Language Politics

Pro-Tagalog (one language one nation)

Pro-English(global competitiveness)

Pro-Mother Tongue (many languages, one

nation)

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MTBMLE in Early Grades-- a narrow convergence point for alliance building

Education reformist

Pro-Development (child rights)

Pro-regional languagesPro-English

Pro-Filipino as National language

MTBMLE

Business Sector

Shifting the argument

Indeed, the argument is not whether one language or the other is more important. This is but a political argument. The argument is which language will benefit children more. Learning happens best when children can engage with school, classroom processes and the subject matter. Therefore, there is no argument about the benefits of using the child's language/mother tongue as the language of learning especially during early education. The research findings all over the world consistently support this conclusion.

Dr. Dina Ocampo, UP College of Education Yahoogroup exchanges, Sept 8, 2008

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Primary Message --a compelling claim that resonates among all the stakeholders

• Defending the most affected, the most vulnerable --Children, especially those whose mother tongue is not Filipino or English

• Identification of the new enemy

illiteracy, underachievement, exclusion

Politicking instead of improving education

Primary and secondary messages

• MTBMLE improves literacy, higher order thinking skills, confidence; unburdens the teacher

• Effective bridge in learning the national language (Filipino) and English

• Child friendly, lowers dropout rate

• Promotes peace and understanding

• Involves parents and the whole community

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Building Momentum: Key Events 2008 - 2013

• Signature campaign

• MTMBLE caravan/ lecture forums in all regions

• National teachers training; devt of instructional matls

• Dept of Education Order 74 s.2009

• Conferences

• Strategic Planning

• Radio/TV /newspaper exposure

• Republic Act 10533 of 2013 (K-12 Act)

Online Petition

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MTBMLE Champions

Gunigundo (Tagalog) Nolasco (Bicol) Agcaoili (Ilocano) Faelnar (Bisaya)

Empirical studies as legitimating tools

• International Studieso Thomas and Collier (USA) o Africa, Latin America, o Papua New Guinea, etc

• Local Studies o Lubuagan experimento Lingua Franca Projecto Iloilo, Rizal Experiments

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MTBMLE Primer Collection of Essays

Teachers Training

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Conferences

Online presence

-Blogsite-Yahoogroups-Facebook Groups

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Major gains/results

• Multi-sectorial partnerships • Enabling policies• MTBMLE Trainors• Teachers training for all grades 1-3 teachers (200,000)• Instructional materials in 19 languages (90% of the

population)• MLE programs initiatives by NGOs • MLE programs/courses in a number of Teacher Education

Institutions• Local programs and policies for mother tongue use in other

sectors (mass media, business, government)

Lessons learned

• Locate and connect with advocates in various places• Building a good mix of advocates from Dept of education,

academe, NGOs, civil society, artists and writers (language and education sector)

• Support and give credit to local initiatives of advocate• Maintain consensus around a depoliticized zone–quality

education • Maximize technology, especially social media • High visible / high impact• Low cost and simple

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Challenges/Needs

• Quality teachers training / materials (esp reproduction)

• Facilitating dialogical/participatory relationship among MLE stakeholders (orthography, materials development, etc)

• Empirical studies to address the unique pluralingual contexts

• Consensus building to include parents and the general public

• Communicative teaching strategies in large classes

• Making MTBMLE generative and transformative

• Intellectualizing and professionalizing local languages

• Mother tongue literacy beyond the school gates

• Making pre-service teacher education curriculum MLE-friendly

Agyamannak unay

Dios iti agngina

ched.arzadon@gmail.com