Implementing Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education in an Area of Armed Conflict in Southern Philippines: A Case Study

Abstract

The use of the mother tongue in the classroom to learn concepts has been practiced by many of the countries that garnered the highest points in international assessments as shown in the 20 I 5 report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Several studies have also shown the benefits of using the mother tongue in learning and this has been recognized by the Philippines through Republic Act I 0533, "An Act Enhancing the Philippine Basic Education Sy.stem by Strengthening its Curriculum and Increasing the Number of Years for Basic Education."

With Philippine schools adopting the use of mother tongue as the medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3, this study looked into how Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) was implemented in an area of armed conflict.

The current study specifically answered the following questions: I) How is MTB­MLE implemented in an area of armed conflict in terms of the use of mother tongue as subject, medium of instruction, and auxiliary language; 2) How is the mother tongue integrated in peace education in an area of anned conflict particularly in the curriculum, instructional materials, and strategies.