SO the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education Policy of 2012 has been scrapped, leaving its advocates angry and disappointed. It is obviously a setback for the development and maintenance of Philippine languages. However, instead of wallowing in misery, it is best that we move forward and find ways to still be able to develop and maintain our languages.
Even though the policy has been repealed, there is room left for mother tongues to be taught. This would have to be in places where there is a common mother tongue among schoolchildren and that mother tongue has adequate resources for teaching. Somehow, this provision actually helps us rethink how mother tongue education could be implemented in a multilingual, developing country. It is not easy to implement this, particularly in places where other mother tongues are in use and these do not have enough teaching and learning materials. I would guess there are quite a number of these places in the Philippines.
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