The reality of English as a protected language

REPUBLIC Act (RA) 12027, or the act discontinuing the use of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction from kindergarten to Grade 3, lapsed into law without President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s tacit approval. I would not divine what reason the President gave for withholding his signature, but if he had reservations then I would like to commend him. For now, the discontinuation of mother tongue-based education until Grade 3 is solely the Congress' burden to bear.

Despite scientific findings pointing to the effectiveness of using the mother tongue in improving the competence of students in mathematics and science, Congress has apparently yielded to the alleged difficulty in implementing the policy due to logistical concerns, including the absence of capable teachers and of teaching materials. What Congress now provided for is an optional implementation but only in monolingual classes composed of learners all of whom speak the mother tongue and are enrolled in the same grade level in the same school in a given school year.