MANILA — Voting 22-0-0, the Senate has approved on third and final reading Senate Bill 2457 which discontinues the use of the mother tongue as medium of instruction from kindergarten to Grade 3 and provides for its optional implementation in monolingual classes.

The bill amends sections 4 and 5 of Republic Act 10533, otherwise known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.

Under the bill, the medium of instruction shall revert to Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English, pursuant to  Article XIV, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution. The regional languages shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction.

A monolingual class refers to a group of learners who speak the same mother tongue and are enrolled in the same grade level in a given  school year.

The Senate bill is the product of the committee report that also covered the House version of the bill.

Senator Joel Villanueva welcomed the approval.

"Through language mapping, we will be able to cluster together our students in the same grade level and with a common language into monolingual classes to ensure that our MTB-MLE will be more effective,” Villanueva said.

“Ang kagalingan sa wika ay nagsisimula sa paggamit ng sariling wika at nagbibigay ng matibay na pundasyon para sa pagkuha ng kaalaman, kasanayan, at kakayahan sa lahat ng iba pang larangan ng pag-aaral, kung kaya importanteng parte ng K-to-12 Curriculum ang Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education,” he added.