DepEd urged: 'Let jejemon be; it will

pass'
abs-cbnNEWS.com
Posted at 05/27/2010 6:01 PM | Updated as of 05/28/2010 9:53 AM

MANILA, Philippines -The Department of Education (DepEd) may be concerned

about the effect of the jejemon subculture in schoolchildren's future, but a Filipino
professor says there is no cause for alarm.

"Lilipas din 'yan at normal lang na magkaroon ng variations sa language. In fact,

healthy pa nga sa wika 'yun," said Dr. Jimwell Naval, who teaches at the
University of the Philippines.

The professor added that jejemon is just a fad; it will not affect Pinoy lifestyle as a
whole.

Neither will jejemon, he said, affect the performance of schoolchildren in

entrance exams because the use of jeje-speak or jejenese, the "language" of
jejemon, is just marginal.

Naval called on the DepEd instead to focus on academic issues since jejemon is
just a set of codes among today's kids and is not language or literature. The
youth who are into jejemon just want to give a new spin to the Filipino language.

What is jejemon?

Jejemon is a recent development in Filipino pop culture.

Jejemons, young people who are part of the subculture, deliberately exaggerate
ordinary words by adding or subtracting letters, by using a mixture of capitalized
and not capitalized letters in words, and even adding numbers.

The word "hello" in jeje-speak is written as "eow"; "ako" becomes "aqouh"; and
"po" morphs into "pfouwh." This style is used in texting, and in communicating via
social networking sites such as Friendster and Facebook.
Self-confessed jejemons Jenine Bon, 17, and Aron Lambino, 20, revealed how
and why they learned jeje-speak.

"Natuto lang din po ako sa iba. Hindi ko maintindihan nung una yung sinasabi
nila, pero nung tumagal, ganun na rin ako magtext. Paartehan lang po," said
Jenine.

"In ka kasi pag ginamit mo yung jejemon eh. Boring din yung simpleng pagtxt,"
shared Aron.

In a post entitled "Rason Bakit May Mga Jejemon Dito sa Mundo" at a jejemon
site, jejemons share 10 reasons for their existence. The first reason: "Gs2 q
p0wHGs2 q p0wH~ sIlA mSHocK SA aKin Kpg mY Bg0 aqng w0rd~ NA~
NaiimBEN2 P0WH.~ JEjE. Translation: Gusto ko po silang mashock sa akin
kapag may bago akong word na naiimbento. Hehe."

LFS: Barking at wrong tree pohw

The League of Filipino Students (LFS) is also calling on the DepEd to focus on
other problems in education instead of the jejemon issue. "They are barking at
the wrong tree pohw. Mas maganda mag-all out war na lang sila sa mga
textbook errors at corruption issues sa DepEd imbis na jejemon," said Terry
Ridon of the LFS.

At a press briefing in Malacañang, Education Secretary Mona Valisno expressed

concern over jejemon and called the attention of teachers on the need to
inculcate proper values, including communication skills, on the young as these
are necessary for them in high school and even college.

The DepEd reiterated though, that it is not inclined to ban the practice of jeje-
speak or jejenese, the unique "language" of jejemons, among schoolchildren.

“We want to maintain our dominance in communication skills, which has made
our country very attractive to investors in the Business Process Outsourcing
(BPO) sector because our people have very good communication skills and are
easily trainable,” Valisno said.
“But I will not go to the extent of banning it in elementary schools or high schools.
I am just urging the teachers to ensure that proper communication skills and
values are continuously imparted to the students. We do not need to issue a
memorandum or impose penalty for such practice,” she stressed.

Valisno added, “I only order the teachers not to allow wrong English, wrong
spelling and wrong grammar. We would like to encourage our children to text in
the correct way, [use] correct construction of sentence, correct English, grammar
and spelling because they would need this practice in their higher years.”

“Practice makes perfect. So if you resort to wrong practice, then the outcome is
also wrong. Just like in piano if you resort to wrong finger dexterity, you can’t
correct that anymore,” Valisno added. --With report from Atom Araullo, ABS-
CBN News.

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LINKS

Holding classes in a basketball court or under a mango tree or in a nipa hut,

students sitting on the floor due to lack of chairs—these are just some of the
saddening truths of the public classrooms condition in the Philippines.
Students must learn to deal with the unconducive learning environment if they
want to finish school. Being a student in a public elementary or high school
anywhere in the country means one should have patience and determination to
endure the bad state of the classrooms and to finish one's studies amidst
struggles.
Shortages in chairs, electric fans, classrooms and teachers, among other
things,are the usual scenarios that greet the first Monday of June. Such problems
have become common since nothing much has been done to solve them over
the years.

For education's sake

The Department of Education launched the annual Brigada Eskwela also known
as the National School Maintenance Week, last May 18-22, 2009.

Brigada Eskwela is part of the Oplan Balik Eskwela-a program spearheaded by

the DepEd and participated in by various government agencies and the private
sector.

Brigada Eskwela, launched in 2003, seeks to prepare public schools before the
start of classes in June. The program engages all education stakeholders to
contribute their time, effort and resources to ensure that public schools
nationwide are ready for school opening.

Volunteers for Brigada Eskwela conduct minor repairs and maintenance in public
elementary and secondary schools.

Supporters
The problems in public schools are mainly attributed to the government's lack of
budgetary allocation for education. Some schools rely instead on donations from
charitable institutions. In this regard, Brigada Eskwela can be considered as a
temporary solution to the age-old problem.

In Baclaran Elementary School, parents actively participated in the overall

cleaning and repairing of school facilities, according to a report by dzBB's Allan
Gatus.

According to mb.com, the DepEd in Central Luzon has expanded the volunteer
program to include other educational concerns aside from rehabilitation of school
buildings and facilities.

DepEd region III Director Mario L. Ramirez said that the program in their area
has been upgraded and called "Brigada Eskwela Plus." Ramirez said that the
program's other concerns include "reducing the dropout rate in public schools,
increasing the participation rate in elementary and secondary schools, raising
cohort-survival rate, and ensuring that the health and nutrition needs of the
elementary school pupils are met."

Inquirer.net reported that thousands of volunteers in Central Mindanao joined

Monday's start of Brigada Eskwela.

At the Kidapawan City National High School in North Cotabato, almost a hundred
volunteers showed up, bringing along brooms, husks, garden tools, paintbrushes
and some food and drink.

At least 70 employees of Aboitiz Foundation Inc. painted desks and armchairs at

the Banilad Elementary School and Night High School in Brgy. Banilad, Cebu
City. They also cleaned several computer units in the school's computer
laboratory.

Lasting impressions

In saving the government and parents from additional expenses for repairing
school facilities Brigada Eskwela seems to be a big help.

But authorities must consider that it is not only beautification and other
renovations that have to be done in public schools. More important concerns are
being neglected.

"In our school brigada skwela (sic) is nothing but checking of attendance of the
large number of brigade compose of parents and students and some of them are
relatives and friends of the certain students who wants to enroll this school year
2009...brigada skwela (sic) in our school is nothing, but a joke. Firstly, how could
parents and students do some repairs in our school if there's no supply of nails,
wood, plywood, paint and other materials needed for brigada skwela? (sic)
Secondly, how could the parents do the repairs? There's no materials coming?
(sic)," a blogger commented.

Dinah, on the other hand praised the program "I just hope that DEPED will come
up with another brilliant and working idea like this Brigada Eskwela and stop the
overpricing of books tat (sic) has been hounding them for years."

"It's a good thing that government initiate such activities not just to beautify the
school, but also promote camaraderie among teachers, parents and students.
You're right, the government should do something to lower the prices of books as
well as increase the book per student ratio to improve the quality of education in
the public school system," yami commented on Dinah's blog.

An editor from voxbikol.com commented, "In a fragmented and fragmenting

society such as ours whose cohesion cannot anymore rely on an adherence to a
unitary religious belief, but is instead beset by competing and often conflicting
sets of values, the call to build a nation for our children's sakes may prove to
resonate more soundly given our family-centeredness. In as much as Brigada
Eskwela aids us in this respect, it is truly worth our support."