Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education Implications on Teacher Readiness and Student Literacy

The Department of Education, through its various divisions of city schools, strictly implements the mother tongue based-multilingual education (MTB-MLE) in pursuance to the shift of the Philippine educational system. This paper was made to assess the MTB-MLE curriculum in selected public elementary schools in a school division in the Bicol Region, Philippines. The study determined the level of teacher readiness and the effectiveness of MTB-MLE in the localized context. Both the descriptive and evaluative methods were utilized in the research to confirm and validate the data gathered. The use of structured questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussion (FGD) assessed how the teachers from the selected elementary schools were faring in the MTB- MLE as a learning subject. Results show that teachers are ready for the implementation of MTB-MLE and that, it is effective in improving the academic achievement of the pupils in terms of comprehension, social interaction, articulation, sentence structure, and scientific and mathematical skills. This is supported by the data analysis taken from three successive school years. This paper shows that limited resources were the major problem encountered in implementing the MTB-MLE. The data gathered brought forth the conclusion that a sufficient supply of instructional materials is needed to fill the gap in the use of MTB-MLE in the schools. Moreover, the continuous support from the government is highlighted to achieve its goal of producing highly equipped 21st-century learners.

Keywords –Bikol, Education, MTB-MLE, K to 12 Curriculum