Ground Forces Commander General Ilker Basbug has asserted that the right to mothertongue

education would threaten the nation state.

This is not the first time the General Staff has interfered in this issue. In 2004, following a complaint
by the army, the Ankara Governor's Office filed a suit to close the Trade Union for Education and
Science Employers (Egitim-Sen) because it supported mothertongue education in its statute. The
case was only closed when the trade union changed its statute.
Languages become extinct, children perform less well academically
According to experts, there are two problems when children are forced to use the dominant
language of the country:

o Everyone has the right to love and develop their language and culture, and states have the
responsibility to protect this right. According to research data, children are exposed
intensely to the dominant language at an early age so that they forget their own language
and become monolingual individuals. The language is thus not handed on to the next
generation and a culture dies out. UNESCO, the UN Organisation for Education, Science
and Culture, has announced that around half of the 6,000 languages spoken around the
world are threatened by extinction. 96 percent of these languages are spoken by only 4
percent of the world population. UNESCO supports language proficiency at at least three
levels: in the mothertongue, in the national language and in a language of communication.
o Today individuals are forced to use more than one language. However, if there is no early
education in a child's mothertongue, this child will have difficulties in learning other
languages and is likely to be less successful at school. International research shows that
mothertongue education plays a positive role both in identity formation and in academic
success. A UNESCO newsletter of 2003, published on its website, speaks of these positive
effects.

Turkey has signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but only after Articles 17, 29 and
30 were taken out.

Parts of these articles read as follows:

Article 17: "States Parties recognize the important function performed by the mass media and shall
ensure that the child has access to information and material from a diversity of national and
international sources, especially those aimed at the promotion of his or her social, spiritual and moral
well-being and physical and mental health. To this end, States Parties shall:
[...]
(d) Encourage the mass media to have particular regard to the linguistic needs of the child who
belongs to a minority group or who is indigenous; "
Article 29: "1. States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to:
[...]
(c) The development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and
values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or
she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own;
(d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding,
peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious
groups and persons of indigenous origin; "
[...]
Article 30: "In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous
origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in
community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and
practise his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language."
Kaboglu: Minority status must be acknowledged first
In many countries, children make use of the rights which General Basbug opposes. For instance, in
Germany, or since 1998 in France, minority schools can educate children in their own language.
What Prof. Ibrahim Kaboglu said six years ago, is still valid today: "For minorities in Turkey to make
use of rights, the state must first of all recognise minority identities." (E/NZ/AG)
English vs mother
tongue as a medium of
instruction
Published March 2, 2009 4:00pm
By WINNIE MONSOD

(Following is the transcript of the segment "Analysis by Winnie

Monsod" which aired on News on Q on Jan. 26, 2009. Prof. Winnie
Monsod is the resident analyst of News on Q which airs weeknights
at 9:30 p.m. on Q Channel 11.)

Before we discuss the so-called Gullas bill or the proposed act

strengthening and enhancing the use of English as a medium of
instruction, let's get a backgrounder on the state of education in
the Philippines.

For every 100 children that start grade one in our country, only 65
will reach Grade 6, the others having dropped out along the way
(with 18 of the dropouts occurring between Grade 1 and Grade 2).
What this means is that even before these children are 12 years old,
more than one third of them are essentially condemned to poverty.

That is not all. The net enrollment ratios have been steadily
decreasing between 2003 and 2007, and for the Philippines, that
has gone down from 90.3% to 83.2%.

The quality of that education is abysmal. Only 26% or a little over

of 6th graders have a mastery of English, where mastery is defined
as obtaining a score of 75% or higher in English, 31% of those
students have a mastery of Math and 15% have a mastery of
Science.

And if that is abysmal, that means the quality of high school

education has to be the pits because only 7% of them have mastery
in English. 16% have mastery in Math... 2% have mastery in
Science.

Even college does not help: only 2 to 7% of college graduates who

apply for positions in BPOs show English mastery, and even then,
they have to undergo another three months of training to increase
their competence.

This is where the Gullas bill comes in. The rationale of that bill is
that if we want to have greater competence in English, and be in a
position to take advantage, or compete in a globalized world,
English must be used as the medium of instruction from Grade 3
onwards.

Now everyone will agree that we need greater competence in

English to be competitive in a globalized world. But educators or
those who have done education research will disagree that using
English as the medium of instruction will accomplish that goal.
As a matter of fact, they point out that research findings are
unequivocal, that to achieve greater mastery in English or Filipino,
the most effective medium of instruction is in the child's mother
tongue that is her first language or the language spoken at home.

Studies in country after country bear this out. Teaching in an official

school language that is not the mother tongue is a major barrier in
the child's learning.

In the Philippines, the experiment was conducted in Kalinga, where

teachers use Kalinga to teach children from Grades 1 to 3 to read
and write. It is also the medium of instruction for teaching other
subjects, including Filipino and English.

Out of the 10 districts in the Kalinga division, the Lubuagan district

topped the 2006 national achievement test Grade 3 reading test for
both English and Filipino, with mean scores of 76.55% and 76.45
respectively, which indicates mastery. The Tinglayan district came in
a far second, registered only 63.89% and 53.58%.

The Gullas bill has very good intentions. But, as they say, the road
to hell is paved with good intentions.