Should the language of instruction be in english or tagalog?

actually, i think we should start incorporating a third language in our education system. chinese would be a good language to learn since china's economy keeps growing. unfortunately, Philippine education is not fundamentally sound. simple textbooks contain many errors. public schools have too few teachers and classrooms and too many students. I hope the noy-mar tandem can address all these if ever they win in may 2010

@christian: ewan ko lang a, but I've found that smarter people are those who learned in a single language of instruction during their formative years. Yung mga malupit na ingglisero't ingglisera o kaya yung mga matatatas managalog. Basta yung language nila nung bata, habang nag-aaral, iisa lang. Kaysa sa mga natuto ng iba-ibang language bata pa lang.

That's just my personal observation though.

@applicious: siryoso ka ba? haha I really don't see what you're advocating happening. Although, you have a very valid point. I myself would want to learn Chinese. (Malaking dagdag bayad sa amin dito sa call center yan) Pero ang hirap! Para sa akin nga, bordering on impossible na siya. I hope everyone else will have better luck hehe

@lonely boy. i believe referring to specialization. those who start early at one language tend to have deeper mastery. but that does not discount the ability of multilinguals. the fact that they can process more than one language is a feat in itself. in the world of economics and business, knowing more is a trump card. this eliminates information rigidities, the more you know the more informed your decision.

i still advocate multilingual. because it's reality, a fact of life that no matter how we wish to hide will be there to haunt us. why not take advantage of the situation.

More than the language of instruction, the issue is the general culture of the Filipino towards learning.

Everyone says they want to learn and have a good education. But we generally can't or don't want to go through the motions. "Can't" because there are children and parents who can't afford to let their children study. In spite of any enrollment in a public school, these kids have to do household chores, help their parents hawk whatever wares they sell, beg, etc. So the only time they're really "studying" is the time they actually spend in the school (such as it is).

"Don't want to" because we don't see the relevance of what we're learning in school with real life. For me, herein lies the key. We should espouse a more pragmatic approach to teaching. Instructors should be down-to-earth (this means "practical", it doesn't mean humble. Check it.) and teach the kids the wonders of how Math, English, Science, History, Social Science, etc. work in the world.

whether english or tagalog, what's sure is that this program will need a huge overhaul of our education sector - retraining teachers, revising curriculum, new books and instructional materials etc. sana hindi lang lip service lahat to. gusto ko marinig si mar (at iba pang kandidato for that matter) na magbigay ng mas konkretong detalye sa balak niya dito