Finally, Cebuano will be taught in schools

For tonight’s special presentation on Straight from the Sky, we bring you a discussion about couples who are planning to get married. It’s about the Discovery Weekend, a pre-marriage encounter. Call it timely that this show comes when the issue of the proposed Divorce law is being debated in Congress and by the media. There is no doubt that the proposal to allow Divorce in this country is to help couples with irreconcilable differences get back to a normal life. But we also know that married couples separate simply because they were not financially, mentally or physically prepared for marriage.

This is what a pre-marriage encounter can do for couples who intend to get married - get a shot at the coming reality, that a wedding isn’t a Walt Disney movie that ends with “And they lived happily ever after.” Ever after often ends in a war of the sexes. Remember the movie “Sleeping with the enemy?” I’m sure that there were so many movies, fun and entertaining and often horrifying about failed marriages. All because of what we call a “Fatal Attraction” which you know was the title of another hit failed marriage movie.

With us tonight to talk about the Discovery Weekend is Dr. Renal Peter Ramiro, a doctor on Medical Rehabilitation, who is also the administration for the Discovery Weekend in Cebu. With him is a couple who took the pre-marriage encounter a couple of years ago, Mr. James Ian and his wife Ernesita Abesamis. If you know friends or family who are planning to get married, give them this gift of taking the Discovery Weekend. It is a better gift than giving the couple a set of cookery or culinary ware because this gift will give them a long lasting marriage. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 pm.

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Last Friday, I attended the public hearing on the proposed ordinance to support the Department of Education Order no. 74 mandating the use of Mother tongue-based multi-lingual education (MLE) as proposed by Provincial Board member Arleigh Sitoy. The hearing was chaired by Hon. Wilfredo Caminero and assisted by Provincial Board members Agnes Magpale and John Peter Calderon. Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy was also there as well as many who support or do not support this ordinance, like Akademiyang Bisaya Executive Director Greg Jumao-as and Dr. Jess Tirol of the University of Bohol, whom I consider a pillar in saving the Cebuano language.

I’ve attended many language workshops and it always brings out the passion in people. DepEd Order no.74 mandates the use of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction from pre-school to grade 3, while teaching English and Filipino as subjects. Then from grades 4-6 the use of English will be increased and Filipino for Social Studies. Board Member Sitoy’s ordinance was supposed to support the DepEd order with a P5 million budget. Though there was some confusion in the hall because people mistakenly thought that English would be totally removed from the curriculum. This just shows how rumors can be so twisted.

Then there was this woman, proudly showing that she was a Noynoy supporter telling us that she was against the use of Cebuano because it is an immature language. Of course, this raised a lot of eyebrows; after all, I would like to believe that she was of Cebuano parentage. I would have loved to give her a piece of my mind, but Dr. Jess Tirol, who is the authority of the Cebuano language told the audience that languages are never immature. They are just not formally taught to its native speakers. In short, it is people who do not know their own culture and language who are immature.

I sat beside Ms. Alice Quilting who represented the Tourism Industry and she only wanted a clarification about the future of the education of our children. So with all the clarifications ironed out that Sitoy’s ordinance would follow the DepEd order no.74, the public hearing ended well. But I must say that I still have certain reservations on this DepEd order.

My apprehension is that it would still use Filipino as the medium of instruction for Social Studies. It’s about time that Filipinos learn the truth that Filipino is, for all intents and purposes, Tagalog given a more palatable name. If there is anything Filipinos who do not speak Tagalog do not need, it is to learn another language that won’t land them a job overseas.

I met some friends who were against the measure because they wanted English to be the medium of instruction in our schools. Unfortunately, these people do not realize that many poor Cebuanos living in the far-flung areas of the Province of Cebu do not speak English. Hence, when English is taught in the classrooms, the pupils have difficulty understanding the instructions that the teachers give them. I asked one friend a simple question: “When you get a new house help, do you interview her in English or in Cebuano?” Of course they don’t speak English to them. Kudos to the Province officials, the Cebuano language would finally and formally be taught in our schools for the first time since Magellan arrived on our shores!

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