FILIPINO IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

LOLITA G. LAPUZ

Writer and critique Isagani Cruz said that all students need to take the two “Core Curriculum Subjects” called “Communication and Research in Philippine Language and Culture” and “Reading and Criticism of Different Texts for Resear ch.”

They then take another required subject on Filipino, called “Filipino for Specific Purposes (Academic, Sports, Arts, Tech-Voc),” as an “Applied Track Subject.”

According to him, The competencies for these subjects are taken from the Filipino subjects in the current General Education Curriculum (GEC), as mandated in CHED Memorandum Order No. 54, series of 2007 (“Revised Syllabi in Filipino 1, 2, and 3 under the New General Education Curriculum”).

For example, the college Filipino 1 (“Communication in Academic Filipino”), features discussions on “language, dialect, idiolect, variety, variation, register, domain, and repertoire.” The first Junior High School core subject features discussions on “language, national language, language of instruction, official language, bilingualism, multilingualism, register, variety, homogeneity, heterogeneity, language community, mother tongue, second language.”

In fact, Cruz stressed, more attention is given to Filipino in Junior High School than in the old GEC. There are 80 hours per subject or 240 required hours devoted to Filipino in SHS, but only 54 hours per subject or 162 hours required for students of humanities, social sciences, and communication, or 108 hours required for students of other majors in college.

The students in Grade 11 (16-year-olds) are exactly the same students in First Year College (if there were no Grade 11). The subject matter is the same, the students are the same, the teachers might even be the same. Changing the name “First Year College” to “Grade 11,” at least in the case of the study of the Filipino language, is a mere change of name, not of substance.

— oOo—

The author is Teacher III (Junior High School) at Diosdado Macapagal High School, Mexico, Pampanga