A critique paper on Ghio Ong’s “10,000 teachers may lose jobs due to removal of

Filipino, Panitikan”

Other countries show value to their culture and language, while Filipinos, kill their
own. In an article published by Ghio Ong on the 17th of November, 2018, he pointed out
that the Supreme Court’s decision of removing Filipino as a core subject in college,
making it optional for students to take it, will leave thousands of educators without jobs.
This issue has called the attention of Dr. David San Juan, head of Filipino language
advocacy group Tanggol Wika, claiming that the solution of having college Filipino
professors move to basic education or change course to teach, would make them
sacrifice a lot. Teachers will have to face increased teaching loads with a smaller
income. Such claim is very effective in pursuing the readers to value Filipino and
Panitikan as required and important subjects to teach in higher education. The article
was able to state how these subjects are tools in promoting nationalism and patriotism.
However, the author only focused on the disadvantages of excluding Filipino courses in
the college curriculum.

The issue started the year 2013 when the Commission on Higher Education
(CHED) agreed to a memorandum which aims to remove Filipino as a subject taught in
college last 2016 as part of the new curriculum. It is due to the reason that Filipino,
being a part of the curriculum in elementary and high school is enough. For San Juan of
Tanggol Wika, this stops ordinary Filipinos from improving and becoming professionals
while being fluent with their own language. Filipino language, is in fact, yet to be totally
used in a variety of fields, in all levels and disciplines, and this explains why it should be
learned in all levels of education. It was also discussed that Filipino courses would not
be totally removed rather, it will become elective subjects among college students,
which San Juan was also against. This only means that it is not required for the
students to take Filipino and Panitikan subjects, it depends on them if they would like to
continue strengthening their sense of identity and nationalism. This is where the issue
on teacher’s loss of jobs enters. With the Filipino courses being optional, college Filipino
professors will have lessened workloads. The CHED’s solution for this is whether to
learn different courses to teach or switch to teaching in basic education. This creates a
real problem for educators because transferring in basic education also means that they
will have to be contented with less amount of salary. Also, learning a totally different
course will require them a lot of time and effort. Politicians such as Sen. Panfilo
Lacson, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Sen. Joel Villanueva, Sen. Francis Escudero, and
Senate President Vicente Sotto also agree that Filipino should retain as a language of
instruction in the country’s educational system. “We’re not yet done uncovering these
secrets as we continue to marvel at the beauty of our literature. We can still continue
these subjects at the college level,” Pimentel said. This says that Filipinos do not know
yet the depth of Filipino language, and it could be learned through retaining it as a
subject up until college. Furthermore, some ordinary Filipino citizens could only speak
and understand the Filipino language. They are not used to languages like the Korean
language which was issued to be taught as an elective of some schools in Manila. This
only means that foreign languages are starting to be learned by students, and it is not
impossible that the Filipino language will start to disappear and lose importance among
Filipinos.

In general, language identifies one’s culture hence, it is something to be proud of.

Filipino as a language of instruction, is one’s foundation of learning. He understands
further the society through learning the Filipino language and being fluent on it. Once
Filipino courses are removed in higher education, people will lack in appreciating and
understanding the Filipino culture thus, making them less of a Filipino. Also, the
Philippine culture will be overtaken by Western culture. If Filipino is to be removed as a
core subject in higher education, all Filipinos should at least be grammatically correct
and fluent in using their own language. On the other hand, educators should not stop
from pursuing each and everyone the importance of Filipino courses as part of all levels
of education. Additionally, they have the right to fight for the course they are teaching,
which is a Filipino related course, for it promotes nationalism and patriotism. They have
the right to pursue what they are good at, while getting the amount of salary they truly
deserve. Each Filipino has the ability to become more intellectual but it takes a
responsible Filipino to fight for his own language and culture, to have the determination
in increasing his mastery and competency on Filipino his language and as a subject.