Almost 8 in 10 students face language mismatch, PIDS says

NEARLY EIGHT in 10 Filipino students face a mismatch between the language students speak at home and the language used in school creating a “tax” on learning, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said.

Citing his study, PIDS Senior Research Fellow Michael Ralph M. Abrigo said about 79% of Filipino learners experience a mismatch between their home language and the language used in school.

The study found that language mismatch would be pervasive nationwide, with nearly four in five students attending schools where the main instructional language differs from their native language.

The burden varies significantly across regions. Predominantly Tagalog-speaking areas experience minimal mismatch, while students in the Visayas and Mindanao face near-universal language mismatch in schools, he said.

“The mismatch of languages is like taxes,” Mr. Abrigo said. “When students and teachers do not fully understand one another, learners expend additional effort and resources before learning can take place.”

He said language mismatch acts as a form of deprivation that reduces learning productivity.

To address the problem, he said that the government should focus on improving language matching in classrooms rather than simply switching languages of instruction.

The study found that students taught in a language they understand perform better not only in their mother tongue but also in Filipino, English and Mathematics.

“The gains from improving linguistic matching through mother tongue-based multilingual education can be equivalent to as much as one year’s worth of learning gain,” he added.

The government has taken steps to address this gap, but PIDS said the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) framework continues to face implementation challenges.

Citing a separate study, it said only 9% of schools met the Department of Education’s minimum requirements for effective MTB-MLE implementation.

The study identified gaps in teacher training, instructional materials, funding, monitoring and language mapping despite progress in developing teaching and learning materials in 19 Philippine languages.

“Language policy works when it is evidence-based, implementable, culturally rooted, and politically understandable,” said PIDS Consultant Romylyn A. Metila.

“For the Philippines, the implication is to improve the conditions under which multilingual education can succeed rather than to abandon it,” she added.

PIDS said the success of the framework depends on whether schools can use the languages spoken in their communities and whether teachers can adapt instruction to learners’ needs. — Justine Irish D. Tabile