no habla español!

I can't believe that the bigwigs at Dep Ed and CHED are proposing that Spanish will be added to the school curriculum of selected public schools. While I think the intention is good, I don't think that there is a need to do this as of yet.

Why?

I think there is a need for the government to improve on teaching ENGLISH in public and private schools. English teachers may be quite fluent with the language, (they have to be otherwise they shouldn't teach it right?), but other teachers who teach other subjects, like history or mathematics for example, aren't. Lets not talk about the regional intonations that some teachers have because they grew up in the provinces because to me, its quite understandable. What's very bothersome is, there are some teachers who can't even construct a simple sentence in English.

Its funny how schools implement an "English speaking policy" when there are teachers who can't speak the language correctly. I can't blame these teachers because obviously, they were learning with the same environment as the students in elementary and high-school now.

I think what the government should do is train teachers to speak English in the correct manner first before adding another language to the curriculum. English is spoken in most countries and economically speaking, it will good for our children's to learn the language well, especially if they decide to explore the western world for greener pastures. Call centers are booming right now because we know how to speak in English and I think this skill should be invested upon and improved for more investors to come in.

English can also be used as a tool for Filipinos to communicate, especially in areas where people do not know how to speak Tagalog (of Filipino, out national language, by the way). Yes, sadly there are still some areas where people hardly speak Filipino.

There's also an issue of increasing school tuition fees because of this additional subject. With today's hard times, parents may no longer afford additional subjects for their kids because they simply cannot. This is something that should really be considered and addressed.

And why Spanish? Not that I hate the language because I certainly had a blast when I studied it back in college, but there are other languages that may be useful, especially in terms of commerce, here in our own country. Japanese and Chinese comes to mind. As a country, we do a lot of business with China and Japan and learning Niponggo, Mandarin or Fukien may be better.

Ultimately, because of globalization, it would be better for us to learn another language. But I think that we should put priorities in order before taking on something that isn't really needed as of now. Lets educate our children properly. After all, with good education, they will have a better chance of having a bright future.

:-)