House set to pass English bill

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives is set to pass the bill seeking to enliven the use of English in schools and build up global competitiveness of the country's labor force, the Philippine News Agency reported Sunday.

Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, an educator, said he is counting on the House to approve the bill shortly after Congress resumes session on Jan. 19.

The passage of the bill is now just a formality, according to Gullas, a champion of English as a teaching language.

"Mounting global unemployment due to the worsening economic slump has merely underscored the need for our human resources to be proficient in English — the world's lingua franca — in order to stay highly competitive in the job markets here and abroad," Gullas said.

The House committees on basic education and culture and on higher and technical education filed a joint report on Dec. 14, strongly endorsing the bill for immediate plenary consideration and approval.

Of the 238 members of the House, at least 202 sponsored the report on House Bill 5619 –the proposed Act Strengthening and Enhancing the Use of English as the Medium of Instruction.
Besides Speaker Prospero Nograles (Davao City) and Majority Leader Arthur Defensor Sr.
(Iloilo), the bill's key endorsers include Del De Guzman (Marikina City) and Cynthia Villar (Las Piñas City), chairpersons of the basic and higher education committees, respectively.

Likewise, backing the bill are Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora (San Juan); Joseph Santiago (Catanduanes), chairman of the information and communications technology committee, which looks after the English-driven business process outsourcing and other IT-enabled industries; and Junie Cua (Quirino), chairman of the appropriations committee.

The bill's prominent proponents also include former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. (Pangasinan); Luis Villafuerte (Camarines Sur); Edcel Lagman (Albay); Teodoro Locsin Jr. (Makati City); and Roilo Golez (Parañaque City).

In the previous Congress, the House, voting 132-7, approved the English bill on third and final reading. This was in September 2006, or just eight months before the May 2007 mid-term polls.
The Senate, however, failed to act on the bill because the smaller chamber did not have a functional education committee then.

At the time, the Senate committee was chaired by Juan Flavier, who had said he lacked time to consider any bills. As then concurrent Senate President Pro-Tempore, Flavier also had to preside over the daily Senate sessions, as other leaders of the chamber became preoccupied with their reelection bids.

This time, Gullas said the House and the Senate would have ample opportunity to pass the bill.
As proposed by HB 5619: English, Filipino or the regional/native language may be used as the teaching language in all subjects from preschool to Grade 3; English shall be the teaching language in all academic subjects from Grades 4 to 6, and in all levels of high school.

English and Filipino shall be taught as separate subjects in all levels of elementary and high school; The current language policy prescribed by the Commission on Higher Education shall be maintained in college; and English shall be promoted as the language of interaction in schools.

The bill also requires English as the language of assessment in all government examinations, and in all entrance tests in public schools as well as state universities and colleges.

Once enacted, the bill would supersede Department of Education (Deped) Order No. 25, which proclaimed a "bilingual" teaching policy.

Meant to develop "a nation competent in the use of English and Filipino," the bilingual policy was adopted in 1974.

Accordingly, the subjects of social studies, character education, values education, industrial arts, home economics, physical education were all taught using Filipino while other subjects were done in English.

Upon implementation of the bilingual policy, however, Gullas said the subjects that were supposed to be taught in English were actually done in "Taglish," or a blend of English and the local dialect. This weakened English in a big way, he said.

"As a language is best learned through constant exposure and use, we have to prescribe again by law, and not simply by administrative fiat, the reinstatement of English as medium of instruction, except of course in Filipino taught as a subject," Gullas said.

A previous survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) indicated that while most Filipinos are convinced that English mastery leads to greater employment opportunities, many still lack proficiency in the language.

In the March 2008 survey by the SWS, only 76 percent of voting-age Filipinos said they could understand spoken English.

Of those polled, only 75 percent said they could read English; only 61 percent said they could write English; only 46 percent said they could speak English; and only 38 percent said they could think in English.