INTELLECTUALIZATION OF THE FILIPINO LANGUAGE IN THE CURRICULUM

LOLITA G. LAPUZ

The continuing intellectualization of Filipino in a bilingual mode is one of the guidelines articulated by the Department of education.

Clemencia Espiritu, PH.D., stated that studies conducted on the evaluation of the bilingual education program revealed that the program is not seriously being implemented especially by private schools. At the secondary level, it appeared that the policy is not a priority. Many institutions seemed to have put more premium on the use and teaching of English, the main language aspiration of many Filipinos. Studies also showed the very low level proficiency in the two languages of both the teachers and students.

Espiritu furthered that in 1990, a Congressional Commission was created to survey Philippine education. The Commission, more popularly known as EDCOM, recommended among other things the use of Filipino as language of instruction at all levels by the year 2000.

As regards to medium/media of instruction, an order states that “Language courses whether Filipino or English should be taught in that language.”

At the discretion of the schools, literature subjects may be taught in Filipino, English or any other language as long as there are enough instructional materials for the same and both students and instructors/professors are competent in the language.

Courses in the humanities and social sciences should preferably be taught in Filipino.

Espiritu pointed out that the 1974 Bilingual Education Program was revised in 1987 following the ratification of the 1986 Philippine Constitution. Article XIV, Sec. 6 of said Constitution resolved all controversies regarding the national language, when it categorically stated that “the national language of the Philippines is Filipino … ” Sec. 7 of the same document further supported the bilingual policy as it stated, ” … for purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino, and until otherwise provided by law, English… ” The regional languages are mandated as auxiliary official languages and media of instruction in the region.

In the revised policy on bilingual education (Order No. 52, s. 1987), “Filipino and English shall be used as media of instruction, the use allocated to specific subjects in the curriculum as indicated in Order No. 25, s. 1974”. The two languages shall also be taught as subjects in all levels to achieve bilingual competence and achieve intellectualization of the Filipino language.

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