The Best Medium to be Used for Instruction English or Filipino Position paper free essay sample

Introduction The poor quality of basic education is reflected in the low achievement scores of Filipino students. International test results like 2003 TIMSS rank the Philippines 34th out of 38 countries in HS II Science. For grade 4, the Philippines ranked 23rd out of 25 participating countries in both Math Science. In 2008, even with only the science high schools participating in the Advanced Mathematics category, the Philippines was ranked lowest. According to the EDCOM Report, the quality of Philippine education is declining continuously. Because of this, the EDCOM recommended to enlarge and enrich technical/vocational education and make the vernacular and Filipino the media of instruction for basic education. Is this really the appropriate respond to the said alarming report? Medium of instruction is a language used in teaching. In the Philippines, both English and Filipino are used by the teachers to cater learning among the students. Some critics said that using English in public schools is a violation of the Philippine Constitution. We will write a custom essay sample on The Best Medium to be Used for Instruction English or Filipino Position paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They even signed a petition asking the Supreme Court to block Executive Order No. 210 which requires the use of English as a medium of instruction in Philippine public schools. When former President Gloria Arroyo was asked about the legality of her new medium of instruction policy, Manila Times quoted her: â€Å"After all, the Constitution specifies that the use of Filipino as language of instruction is subject to provisions of the law and as the Congress may deem appropriate. Therefore, until Congress enacts a law mandating Filipino as the language of instruction† she could give the order to make English the â€Å"primary medium of instruction. † It is very clear that our government is still confused as to what medium of instruction must be used to respond the alarming state of our education system. In the struggle of helping our students for better learning, which could be a more effective medium of instruction, English or Filipino? This blog aims to contribute useful idea in the advent of improving the status of our education system. Discussion Proper Everyone knows that a big part of teaching is communication. It is more than just imparting knowledge to students. It is about effective communication and that when it is missing, everything is nonsense inside the classroom. Where misunderstanding is, ignorance is also. Looking at the state of Philippine education system as reported by the EDCOM, I think the educators are facing a very serious problem. Maybe we can point out some of the reasons behind this problem: books, size of the class, resources, etc. But as a teacher, I started to ask myself â€Å"Am I really understood by most of my students? † Now everyone will agree that we need greater competence in English to be competitive in a globalized world. But educators or those who have done education research will disagree that using English as the medium of instruction will accomplish that goal. As a matter of fact, they point out that research findings are unequivocal, that to achieve greater mastery in English or Filipino, the most effective medium of instruction is in the childs mother tongue; that is his first language or the language spoken at home. Studies in country after country bear this out. Teaching in an official school language that is not the mother tongue is a major barrier in the childs learning (Monsod 2009). Now, I find myself a bit torn with this issue†¦Seriously, I don’t really appreciate English, but I find it more flexible than Filipino as a medium of instruction. Books like Science and Math for instance, can hardly be taught using Tagalog or Bisayan. Though some teachers occasionally use vernacular in teaching the said subjects; yet, English is the primary language used. The Philippines is a country of many languages, so I think English is the most appropriate language to use since it is the universal language. Using vernacular and Filipino as the media of instruction as recommended by the EDCOM is not the answer of improving the students’ performance in international assessments like the TIMSS. Perhaps, a â€Å"teacher factor† can be one reason behind this problem, and I think this must be taken as a challenge rather than an excuse to every educator in improving his communication skills with English. Just imagine that even in Japan, teaching English is a billion-dollar industry. If we want to invest education, then let us not forget the front liners. While the students need more books and rooms that are comfortable and conducive to learning, teachers need accessible and FREE trainings and workshops in enhancing their teaching and communication skills. Conclusions In this age of globalization, it is very important to learn English to be able to compete in the knowledge-based world, and education is the only way to do this. The government must be firm in imposing and implementing its top priorities. I really don’t believe that English is a major barrier in the child’s learning as mentioned by Prof. Monsod in her article. Possibly, the grounds could be the student’s standard of living, nutritional status, mental ability, or emotional stability which needs to be looked into by responsible authorities. I dont agree that using English as a medium of instruction is one way of keeping ones colonial mentality. We have to accept that today is an era of globalization, and we can only keep ourselves competitive if we raise our standards in English competency. Japan and other East Asian countries are spending huge amount of money just to learn this language because they know how important it is to acquire the language for their own existence. Yet, they are still known for their sense of nationalism. The bottom line is we simply just dont lose our sense of nationalism just by learning, improving, and mastering the English language. As a matter of fact, improving ourselves in this field means helping our country to prosper more and that is a true spirit of nationalism. I can be a good teacher in using vernacular language but I can be a better teacher when I use English as the primary medium of instruction.