World Education Connect Multidisciplinary e-Publication, Vol. VI, Issue II (February 2026), pp.152-176
JAY-ANN C. ATIENZA
Teacher III- Pin-as Elementary School
CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM
Introduction
As per Section 5 of the Kindergarten Education Act of 2011 (RA 10157) the state is required to implement the mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTBMLE) system. The learner's mother language will be the main means of education for instructional purposes at the kindergarten level.
One of the most recent advances in the Philippine educational system is “Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE)”. This relates to using learners ' mother tongue as well as two or more other languages of teaching in educational institutions (Lartec et al.,2014). It requires the utilization of language that learners are comfortable with, or their first languages, in order to assist them in better understanding basic ideas. The Department of Education (DepEd) contested the Bilingual Education Policy by releasing an order that mandated the implementation of “Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE)”.
The Department of Education Order No. 16, series of 2012 or the Guidelines for Implementing Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) were released in February 2012, which was adopted in all public schools, particularly kindergarten, Grades 1, 2, and 3, as part of the K-12 Basic Education Program. The MTB-MLE will promote the objective of every child being a reader and writer by Grade 1 (Gempeso et al.,2021).
However, since its adoption, it has faced a number of challenges and complaints. For example, the difficulties in implementing it so that it is consistent with the intended mother-tongue approach (Eslit,2014) as well as the challenge posed by Lartec (2014) to the “Department of Education” in creating a mechanism for assessing, monitoring, and evaluating teachers' innovative strategies and problems. The effectiveness of the policy's legislation is determined by its interpretation and execution in the classroom; what occurs on the ground will contribute, directly or indirectly, to the effective implementation of the linguistic policy. This notion served as the foundation for this investigation.
https://doi.org/10.65494/pinagpalapublishing.144
