THE author of a bill seeking to reinstate English as the medium of instruction has urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to use no less than the national hero, Jose Rizal, to motivate elementary and high school students to master the language.
"Rizal spoke and wrote English, and mastered at least four other foreign languages," House Deputy Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas said. "In this sense, Rizal can definitely serve as a model who can inspire school children to learn English, the global lingua franca, or other foreign languages that will be useful to them once they join the labor force."
Rizal, who studied in Europe, was also fluent in Spanish, French, German and Latin, even though one of the popular proverbs attributed to him is: "Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay mas masahol pa sa mabahong isda." (People who do not love their own language smell fouler than rotten fish).
"In an increasingly borderless ‘global village’ characterized by the freer world trade in human resources and services, English mastery or a working knowledge of the language is certainly a huge competitive advantage," Gullas stressed.
"This applies to all Filipinos — to nurses, engineers, sailors, hotel staff, construction workers, caregivers and domestic helpers overseas, as well as to the Filipino personnel here of multinational firms and business processing outsourcing (BPO) providers," Gullas pointed out.
Gullas, meanwhile, lauded the Supreme Court decision throwing out a lawsuit that had sought to stop the DepEd from enforcing a new language policy reviving English in schools.
Gullas was referring to the petition filed by a group of Filipino writers, academicians and linguists, asking the tribunal to restrain the implementation of Executive Order 210 and Deped Order 36, both of which seek to bolster English in schools.
A large labor group earlier bared that BPO providers here have stepped up hiring of Filipinos who can speak at least one foreign language besides English.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) pushed for the "foreign language skills retooling" of secondary and vocational school graduates, college undergraduates and jobless professionals, to build up their chances of securing gainful employment.
"Workers who are able to speak a second foreign language can surely look forward to even more lucrative jobs, here or overseas, in global corporations, non-government organizations and multilateral institutions," TUCP spokesperson Alex Aguilar said.
"So this is definitely not just about well-paying jobs in call centers here that are now offering a substantial premium for extra foreign language proficiency," Aguilar stressed.
source: Manila Bulletin
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