Article

A Study of Bilingual Education in the

Philippines
—Difference in Pupils’ Degree of
Understanding Between Learning
Mathematics in Cebuano and English—

Yumiko YANAGIHARA *

At present, bilingual education in the Philippines is

provided using either English or Filipino as the
language of instruction and a regional language as
the auxiliary language of instruction depending on
the subject. However, the scholastic achievement
rates for the subjects of mathematics, science, and
English taught in English are low, and the cause of
this has been indicated as being a problem with the
language of instruction.
In light of this, the current study, targeted at 480
public elementary school 3rd graders, 4th graders, and
6th graders（160 pupils in each grade ）, was
conducted for the purpose of（1） verifying differences
in degree of understanding between the
use of Cebuano (regional language) and English as the
language of instruction (2）verifying the effects of
introducing animated images (video and providing
words essential for learning in advance,
and（3）examining the acquisition of unknown words
by pupils during mathematics instruction.
 Introduction

Following the implementation of a bilingual education

policy in 1974, public education has been provided in
the

Philippines from grade I of elementary school to the 4th

year of high school intermediate school ）based on using
English as the language of instruction for science
courses. (such as mathematics and science, in addition
to English and using Filipino for liberal arts
classes（such as Filipino, social studies, civics, and physical
education ）. However, as is pointed out by the Master Plan
for Basic Education（DECS: 1995, p. 5）, the learning of
mathematics and science is currently not proceeding smoothly
due to a lack of ability in English, which is used for
instruction in those courses, thus resulting in a need to
re-examine bilingual education policy and improve the
teaching of English. In addition, under the Estrada
administration in 1999, the use of a lingua f r a n c a
（here referring to the three languages of Tagalog,
Cebuano, and Ilokano）as the language of instruction was
proposed and actually implemented at several
schools（Kim: 2004, p. 104）. Thus, although there have
been some steps taken to reexamine the language of
instruction used in the Philippines, the direction to be taken
has yet to be determined.

In light of the present state of bilingual education in the

Philippines, this study was conducted for the purpose of (1)
verifying differences in degree of understanding between the
 use of Cebuano (regional language) and English as the
language of instruction,（2）verifying the effects of
introducing animated image (video) and providing words
essential for learning in advance as means for enhancing the
level of understanding when English is used as the
language of instruction, an d（3）examining the
acquisition of unknown words by pupils themselves
during the course of learning,
during mathematics instruction targeted at 480 public
elementary school 3rd graders, 4th graders, and 6th
graders (160 pupils in each grade ）.

An overview is first provided of elementary education in the

Philippines, particularly some issues to be raised, as part of
the background of this study. Discussions are then pro-
vided regarding the geographically and historically complex
status of language usage in the Philippines along with
problems. Currently encountered in bilingual education in
that country. This is followed by an experiment on the degree
of under- standing of mathematics learning according to
differences in the language of instruction and a description of
a questionnaire survey given to the 480 pupils. Finally, an
attempt is made to verify the hypotheses, and a discussion is
provided.

Background of the Study

 Elementary Education in the Philippines
The Philippine educational system 1 consists of elementary
educa- tion（six years, although it is provided for seven years at
some private schools）, intermediate education（four
years）and higher education（university and graduate school
）. Both elementary and intermediate education are called
basic educatio n. Elementary education is defined as mandatory
and free of charge according to Article 14, Paragraph 2 of the
Philippine Constitution of 1987. Although intermediate education
is free of charge, it is not mandatory.

Table 1 shows the basic indicators relating to public ele

mentary education in 2003. According to these indicators,
despite a gross enrollment rate of 98.25%, the completion
rate of the final year of school is low at only 62.20%, and
there are a large number of dropouts. The dropout rate of
8.90% is the mean rate, which includes metropolitan areas.
However, in farming villages and other rural areas, cases of
children no longer attending school in order to work on
farms are certainly not rare. It is estimated that one of four
children in farming villages drops out of school before
r e a c h ing the 3rd grade（PCER: 2000, p. 117）. According to a
survey co n ducted by t h e Department of Education of t h e
Philippines, there are 445 barangays（the smallest municipal
unit in the Philippines）that do not even have an elementary
school. 2 Since the adult literacy rate in the Philippines is
reported to be 92.6%, 3 this indicates the considerable d i s -

INDICATORS ELEMENTARY
 Table 1 Basic Indicators in Public Elementary Education in 2003

Gross Enrollment Rate 98.25%

Net Enrollment Rate 81.72%
Pupil / Student-Teacher Ratio 35.73
Pupil / Student-Room Ratio 37.68
Cohort Survival Rate 64.15%
Completion Rate 62.20%
Dropout Rate 8.90%
Transition Rate* 97.00%
Achievement
Rate （ MPS ） ** 44.84% （ Grade IV ）（ 2002–2003 ）
Mathematics 43.98% （ Grade IV ）（ 2002–
Science English Filipino 2003 ）
41.80% （ Grade IV ）（ 2002–
2003 ） Not applicable
Notes: * From Primary （ Grade IV ） to intermediate （ Grade V ） .
** Source: National Education Testing and Research Center （ NETRC ） .
Source: “Fact Sheet Basic Education Statistics” released by the Department of
Education of the Philippines.

crepancies among individual regions of the country in

addi- tion, another important matter that should be noted
in Table 1 is that the scholastic achievement rates for the
main courses of mathematics, science, and English are
all below 50%.

The primary causes of the issues above are the disparity of

educational opportunity for children in different areas, the
language of instruction, a deficiency in the number and qual-
ity of mathematics / science teachers, and the lack of educa-
tional facilities, machinery, or materials（ JICA: 1999, p. 98）
（Bauer & Tamaki: 2000, p. 55 ）. Among these problems,
this study focused on the languages of
instruction （ bilingual edu- cation ） in the Philippines.
The following describes the geo- graphical and historical
complexity of the language situation. and problems
currently encountered in bilingual education in the
Philippines.

2. Languages Used in the Philippines

The language situation in the Philippines, a country com- prised
of more than 7,000 islands, is both geographically and
historically complex. In terms of the number of languages,
there are said to be 171 spoken in the Philippines. 4To begin
with, from a geographical viewpoint, Tagalog is the most
prominent language. It is used in an around metro- politan
areas and is the basis of the Filipino language desig- nated as
the national language in the 1987 Constitution. Ilokano is
spoken in the north, while Cebuano is spoken in the south,
and both are used as common languages in their respective
regions. Kawahara（2003, p. 67）lists eight major la n g u
ages i n t h e P h ilippi n es— Iloka n o, Pa mp a n ga n ,
Pa n gasi n a n , Tagalog, Bicol, H iligayn o n , Wa r ay, a
n d Cebuano—and states that after these eight major
languages, there are other languages spoken by several
hundred thou- sand speakers, and lying on the outermost
edge of these lan- guages, t h ere are la nguages sp oke n
by min ority races referred to as cultural minorities. These
indigenous lan- guages are described as not being equally
and uniformly dis- t r ib u te d a n d as h avin g social lin
guistic sup eriority or inferiority. They are most
accurately perceived as being divided among multiple
levels. The geographical condition of being an island
country is primarily responsible for the formation of this
linguistic situation.

Next, from a historical perspective, the languages of the

Philippines can broadly be divided into four languages,
namely, （1）regio nal languages（local languages such
as Tagalog a n d Cebua n o ）,（2）colo nial
la nguages（suc h as Spanish an d English）,
（3）immigra nt languages（suc h as C hi n ese a n d Ca n
to n ese ）, a n d（4）p id gi n 5 a n d Creole
6（Kawahara: 2003, p. 67）.The most commonly used
languages at present consist of
the regional languages and English. In Japan, Japanese is the
national language, official language, and language of instruc-
tion. For many Japanese, the use of three languages consist-
i n g of a regio n al la n g u age ro u t i n ely use d i n local
communities, English, considered to be the official language
essential for advancing to higher education and acquiring a
professional occupation, and Filipino, designated as the offi-