Cebu solon backs Spanish program in Filipino schools

CEBU CITY, Philippines - Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas has welcomed the initiative of the Department of Education (Deped) to promote the learning of the Spanish language in select public high schools starting this June.

"This is definitely a positive step toward encouraging secondary students to learn not just Spanish but other foreign languages as well when they proceed to college," said Gullas, an educator.

"This is all about making our school programs more relevant and highly responsive to the changing times -- to globalization and to the demands of labor markets here and abroad," Gullas pointed out.

"After all, we send our children to college so they can achieve a better quality of life, not so they can join the ranks of unemployed professionals," he added.

College graduates with extra foreign language skills could look forward to gainful employment in international institutions, multinational corporations, the diplomatic offices of other governments, and even in non-government aid organizations, said Gullas, one of the principal authors of a bill seeking to reinforce the use of English in schools.

Here, Gullas said they could also count on high-paying jobs in the country's Foreign Service, or in the business process outsourcing industry. He cited some of the firms aggressively recruiting local staff that can speak English and at least one other foreign language.

* IBM Business Services Inc., a unit of Armonk, New York-based IBM Corp., is recruiting staff that can speak English and Spanish, or English and any of the following: Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish or Dutch;

* The global manufacturing and technology firm, St. Louis, Minnesota-based Emerson Electric Co., is enlisting for its global service hub in Manila personnel that can speak English and Spanish, or English and any of the following: French, Italian, Dutch, German, Finnish, Russian or Japanese;

* London-based InterContinental Hotel Group PLC's global service center in Manila is signing up employees that can speak English and Cantonese, or English and any of the following: Japanese, Thai, Mandarin or Korean;

* Knowledge Generation Bureau Philippines Inc., a unit of New York-based KGB USA, and West Contact Services Inc., a unit of Omaha, Nebraska-based West Corp., are both drafting professionals that can speak English and Spanish;

* Telephilippines Inc., a subsidiary of France's Teleperformance, and Hinduja TMT Ltd., an affiliate of India's Hinduja Group, are both hiring workers that can speak English and Cantonese;
* Aegis PeopleSupport Inc., a unit of India's Essar Group, is recruiting staff that can speak English and Spanish, or English and French; and

* Sterling Global Call Center Inc. is enlisting personnel that can speak English and Spanish, or English and Mandarin.

Deped's Special Program in Foreign Language is designed for students that have shown competence in English and the ability to learn another foreign language. It is meant to prepare students for greater interaction in a linguistically diverse workplace, and heighten understanding of other people's culture.

The new program would initially offer Spanish in one pilot school per region. Each school would have two classes of 35 students per class.