Bikol in the Classroom

by Nicko San Buenaventura

As early as 7 o’clock in the morning, Teacher Dona prepares her classroom for the day’s discussion. While she arranges the chairs, cleans the chalkboard and fixes her materials for the lesson, students chatter as loud as they can, boys and girls run and catch one another; others are seated silently on their seats inside the classroom. Teacher Dona allows her students to be unruly but once the bell rings, she speaks with all vigor and enthusiasm, full of authority and command to discipline her students. This is the everyday scenario that she has been facing for the past 19 years as a Grade 2 teacher. For her, discipline is one of the greatest values that a teacher should emphasize to her students.   

Yet, discipline is not the only matter that she underscores as a teacher. Teacher Dona also sees to it that her students have mastery of the lessons in Grade 2 before stepping into Grade 3. She uses a variety of teaching techniques in discussions such as repetition of concepts and interactive videos to maximize the learning potential of her students. Nonetheless in the past five years, Teacher Dona has observed her students are learning less because of the inclusion of Bikol as the medium of instruction under the K to 12 Curriculum.

In 2012, the Department of Education included the 12 major local languages in the K to 12 Curriculum as a subject and as the medium of instruction. These major local languages include Bikol, Cebuano, Chabacano.  Hiligaynon, Iloko, Kapampangan, Maguindanaoan, Maranao, Pangasinense, Tagalog, Tausug, and Waray.

Under DepEd Order No. 16 series 2012, the mother tongue as a subject focuses on the development of reading and speaking skills from Grades 1 to 3 under the subject Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education otherwise known as MTB-MLE. As a medium of instruction, the vernacular is used as medium of instruction in all learning areas from kinder to Grade 3 except in the teaching of English and Filipino.

English as a subject is introduced to Grade 1 in October. However, reading and writing in English is taught to Grade 2 in June.  Meanwhile, oral fluency in Filipino is introduced to Grade 1 students in June while reading and writing is taught in October. Listening, speaking, reading and writing in Filipino is continuously developed in Grades 2 to 6.

As a general principle, using the mother tongue or the vernacular, the language that children use at home, inside the classroom during the early years of schooling produces better and faster learners.

Dana Paula, a Grade 5 student echoes this general principle. According to her, she learned faster in school during her Grades 1-3 because she understands Bikol much than English. “Because we are not yet fully exposed to the English language and what we learn in school is limited. Also, our vernacular here is Bikol which we can easily understand,” Dana Paula said when she was asked why she learned faster in her dialect.)

In Teacher Dona’s classroom, she uses Bikol in majority of her discussions while she uses Filipino and English minimally. “Class, nakukua nindo?” she asks her students in vernacular if they understand the new concepts she introduces to them. According to Teacher Dona, using Bikol in her discussions has certain advantages such as students who are in the lower class tend to learn faster. They are also able to catch up with the lessons in the class.

However, Teacher Dona stresses the issue of students learning less because of the mandatory usage of Bikol in classroom discussions.  In her long years in teaching, this is a change that she is skeptical about. In an era where majority of the students are exposed to English and Tagalog as their language, using Bikol as the medium of instruction gives difficulty in learning thus, leading to poor performance in class. Likewise, students whose primary language is Bikol are more familiar with English terms than the vernacular translation. Particularly in Mathematics, students are taught in their house to count one, two, three rather than saro, duwa, tolo.

 “That’s why when I teach Math, I translate it to English,” Teacher Dona said boldly as she goes further the issue during an interview.

She also pinpoints several disadvantages that she observed while using the vernacular inside the classroom. One, some words used by writers of the materials she uses cannot be understood by her students nor by her. Two, most materials that teachers use are either written in English or Filipino. Three, her students’ reading skills in English and Filipino are behind because of lack of mastery in these languages compared to those who were under the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC).

 “There is mastery [in BEC] for me. In [the K-12 Curriculum], time for discussion for different subjects was shortened but the number of subjects taught were increased,” Teacher Dona elaborated.

While doubtful about the positive claims of using mother tongue in discussions, Teacher Dona does not completely want to remove the use of vernacular in the curriculum. She suggests that the usage of Bikol as medium of instruction be integrated only in the MTB-MLE subject rather than using the vernacular in other subjects. Or better yet, the MTB-MLE subject be taught in Grades 4-6, while Grades 1-3 focuses on reading readiness and mastery.

Nicko San Buenaventura 

Nicko is a BS Development Communication student at Ateneo de Naga University. He is also a volunteer artist at Ikigaii Innovation Art Hub. He pursues the intimate realities of life, gains wisdom through experiences and imparts them to the beings who seek refuge from the burdens of life.