Sex education in English, please

Press Release
June 17, 2010

QUEZON CITY  –  If the Department of Education (DepEd) must push through with the pilot testing of basic sex education in selected public schools, Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas wants the new program to be taught wholly in English.

"This way, the DepEd also gets to use the new program to advance the English skills of our children at an early age," said Gullas, an educator and principal author of a bill seeking to reinforce the use of English in schools.

Assuming the trial run of sex education will proceed, Gullas said the Deped has the option to teach the new program in English, Filipino or in the regional/native language.

"Of course we would prefer that it be taught entirely in English, as a language is best learned and mastered through constant exposure and use in school and elsewhere," Gullas said.

Despite resistance from the Catholic Church, the DepEd said it intends to carry out this school year the pilot testing of sex education in 80 elementary and 79 high schools nationwide.

Gullas's bill, the proposed Act Strengthening and Enhancing the Use of English as the Medium of Instruction, was actually passed by the House of Representatives on third and final reading in the 13th Congress. However, the Senate failed to act on the bill in that Congress.

In the outgoing 14th Congress, the House failed to pass the bill, although an overwhelming majority of its members, or 202 of them to be exact, co-authored the measure.

Gullas vowed to re-introduce the bill on July 1. In the bill:

English, Filipino or the regional/native language may be used as the teaching language in all subjects from preschool to Grade 3;

English shall be the teaching language in all academic subjects from Grades 4 to 6, and in all levels of high school;

English and Filipino shall be taught as separate subjects in all levels of elementary and high school;

The current language policy prescribed by the Commission on Higher Education shall be maintained in college; and

English shall be promoted as the language of interaction in schools.

A previous survey by the Social Weather Stations indicated that while most Filipinos are convinced that English mastery leads to greater employment opportunities, many still lack competency in the language.

In that survey, only 76 percent of voting-age Filipinos said they could understand spoken English. Of those polled, only 75 percent said they could read English; only 61 percent said they could write English; only 46 percent said they could speak English; and only 38 percent said they could think in English.