Every child is deeply connected to the vernacular they hear even before meeting the outside world. As such, it is not uncommon for a person’s first words to be in their native language.
But a certain phenomenon perplexes Filipino teachers like Mikee Garcia—how, despite being raised locally, many students express difficulty in speaking the country’s language. “Hindi gano’n kahusay [ang mga estudyante] pagdating sa paggamit ng [Wikang] Filipino. Kailangan pa ng paghahasa.”
(Students are not that fluent in using the Filipino language. Improvements are needed.)
Amid numerous studies reporting an “education crisis” in the Philippines and instability among the Department of Education’s (DepEd) leadership, Filipino teachers tirelessly stand on the front lines to shape our nation’s future by nurturing the basic literacy of our students.
The cut mother tongue
Across schools and universities, students are increasingly more proficient in the English language than in their immediate vernacular. First languages typically start at home, and Cordilleran teacher Melanie Pupoy laments that she has students who do not speak their native language because they grew up in English-speaking households and consumed Western media. “‘Nung mga bata sila, hindi na sila nanonood ng mga videos na may katutubo songs, eh hindi na nila pinapakinggan ‘yun,” she says.
(For example, when they were kids, they didn’t watch videos with indigenous music, so they never really got to hear it.)
For Pupoy, what this reveals is the further prioritization of English as the primary language of a child over their indigenous language and culture. The Cordillera native recognizes that both language and culture are vital to a person’s identity; the deterioration of language translates to how one resonates with their own roots and heritage.
Garcia similarly echoes this sentiment, believing that the inability to speak the native language destabilizes the concept of what it means to be Filipino. As a senior high school teacher at De La Salle Santiago-Zobel, she is saddened by the fact that even her Filipino students have to take special Filipino classes—as if they are foreigners in their own country.
Echoes of fading heritage
Despite the declining fluency of students in their native languages, educational committees still encourage students to largely speak in English. In the first phase of the MATATAG Curriculum, DepEd discontinues a separate Mother Tongue subject for Kindergarten to Grade 3. Garcia explains that this goes beyond disappointment, going so far as grief. “Hirap na hirap na nga ang mga bata, tinanggal pa natin [ang mother tongue],” she bemoans. Similarly, Pupoy worries that despite living in a multicultural region, most of her students from Baguio primarily speak Tagalog and English, unaccustomed to their respective mother tongues.
(They’re already struggling, and we still chose to remove the study of their mother tongue.)
Apart from institutional impositions, students would shy away from speaking the Filipino language for fear of being ridiculed. Such practice of poking fun at mispronunciations—may it be in Filipino or English—has been deeply ingrained in local culture and has taken away the valuable experience of learning.
As a Filipino teacher from Saint Louis University, Pupoy infers that it’s a matter of investing in language learning initiatives and linguistic research on local tongues. It’s possible that a number of indigenous languages have been lost to time due to lacking efforts to preserve them. Be it as it may, both teachers are hopeful that their students will find their way back to rekindle the Filipino flame. For one, Garcia actively encourages all her students to only speak in Filipino during their class. Likewise, Tagalog speaker Pupoy learns the local languages in Baguio to help translate the lessons for her students. The two teachers meet and agree that if we want to keep our languages—and by extension, our cultures—alive, it will take a multisectoral endeavor.
The future of the Filipino language
In spite of the removal of mother tongue from the educational curriculum, both Garcia and Pupoy have high hopes. They emphasize the need to prioritize national and regional languages to foster not only linguistic diversity but also build a strong sense of identity.
But above all, the two Filipino teachers beseech the government for concrete actions to fortify the national language. For Pupoy, the first step is clear and straightforward: “Give [the teachers] the opportunity to do research about the language.” She believes that allocating funds for research on native tongue would sequentially reveal the problems with the country’s educational system.
While teachers and educational institutions ask for scraps, the management of allocated funds remains questionable. During the two-year stint of Vice President Sara Duterte as DepEd Secretary in 2023, the agency’s P150-million confidential fund was left unaudited. These anomalies are enduring; though DepEd receives the highest allocated budget every year, students and teachers at the local level are often left in the dark.
Garcia also points out that to effectively address the decline of the mother tongue, the DepEd Secretary must first and foremost be a teacher. A brief review of DepEd’s history would reveal that the last Secretary who came from the education sector was Lasallian Br. Armin Luistro, FSC, who served from 2010 to 2016. Meanwhile, the newly appointed Secretary Sonny Angara’s only experience as an educator was previously being a law professor. And yet, as the calls of teachers fall on deaf ears, Garcia leaves to ponder: “Ano [kaya] ang magiging resulta kung ang nakaupo sa mga posisyon ay kapwa din ng mga nasa laylayan?”
(What could be the result if the leaders with positions are also from the marginalized?)
From educating children to researching languages, many professionals recognize and experience the struggles inherent in the teaching profession. However, without addressing these core issues, it is only a matter of time before our own heritages are lost to time. Garcia and Pupoy are only two of many Filipino teachers who bear the brunt of the country’s lopsided relationship with the mother tongue. With undying conviction, they remain optimistic for their students to learn the language and explore our cultures. Every day, Filipino teachers wake up with renewed hope and fervor “for the children, for the country, for the language, and for the future of our education.”
This article was published in The LaSallian‘s January 2025 issue. To read more, visit bit.ly/TLSJanuary2025.
