Why removing Filipino from college will lead to layoffs

MANILA - The Pambansang Samahan sa Linggwistika at Literaturang Filipino insists thousands of teachers will lose their jobs once Filipino is removed from the general education curriculum. The group's secretary, De La Salle University (DLSU) Professor Michael San Juan, said 10,000 Filipino teachers will either be fired or face reduced teaching loads by 2016. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) memorandum limits the teaching of Filipino at the college level to Filipino majors. "The promise is a lie, a total lie. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday said they won't be able to save all those who will be out of jobs," San Juan told "Mornings @ ANC" on Thursday. Malacañang earlier said the CHED's decision to remove the Filipino subject from college curriculum came about following the adoption of the K+12 program, which sees the addition of two years to the basic and secondary levels. It said the CHED feels the additional two years will allow the Filipino subject to be accommodated in high school. This way, college education can focus on interdisciplinary courses. Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma gave assurances that affected teachers can teach the same subject in high school without affecting their rank, salaries and benefits. Meanwhile, San Juan said teaching Filipino at the tertiary level will not make students less competitive compared to their ASEAN neighbors. "We should really improve the teaching of the Filipino language because this will be one of our main contributions to the learning of the ASEAN region. We are not opposed to maintaining English as a separate subject; all we are asking for is at least one subject that will develop the skills of Filipino students using their own language while at the same time maintaining their use of the English language so that we will be functional bilinguals," he said. "This is not anymore a debate over which is better: English or Filipino. We actually support English, but at the same time we would like to insist on the parallel space of Filipino so that we could integrate the knowledge that we have in English in the Filipino discourse," added Professor Alvin Ringgo Reyes. -- ANC