A disconnect between the language spoken at home and the medium of instruction in schools is severely hindering the academic performance of Filipino students.
Researchers from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) have likened this phenomenon to a hidden “tax on learning” that effectively costs children up to a full year of education.
The findings, presented during a recent PIDS webinar, were compiled from two institutional papers: “Linguistic Mismatch and Learning Productivity: Evidence from Mother Tongue-based Education in the Philippines” and “Language of Instruction Transition in Education Systems (LITES).” The research highlights how language barriers disrupt literacy development and complicate education policy across the country.
According to the studies, the root of the problem is structural. When lessons are taught in an unfamiliar language, students are forced to spend critical cognitive energy decoding words before any actual learning can take place.
Data presented by PIDS Senior Research Fellow Michael Ralph Abrigo indicates that under the current Filipino-English bilingual setup, roughly 79% of learners deal with a linguistic mismatch between home and school.
While the gap is minimal in Tagalog-speaking regions, it is starkly pronounced in parts of the Visayas and Mindanao due to the country’s vast linguistic diversity.
Abrigo defined this discrepancy as a form of structural inefficiency.
“The mismatch of languages is like taxes,” he said.
He explained that when communication barriers exist between teachers and students, learners must exert extra effort just to comprehend the lesson, which ultimately lowers educational productivity.
Conversely, data across both studies showed clear academic improvements when children are taught in a language they speak natively.
“When children are taught in their mother tongue, they perform better in Filipino, English and mathematics,” Abrigo said.
The research suggests that aligning classroom instruction with a student’s native tongue can create learning gains equivalent to an entire school year.
F8urthermore, student retention rates from Grades 1 to 6 saw an increase of 9 to 12 percentage points when home and school languages matched.
The LITES study, presented by Aniceto Orbeta Jr., Romylyn Metila, and Jennifer Monje, tracked students across 60 schools. Their data confirmed that superior literacy outcomes are directly linked to first-language learning materials, specialized teacher training, preschool attendance, and the consistent use of the student’s home language in the classroom.
“Children learn best in the language they know, and they understand,” Orbeta said.
The Implementation Hurdle
Despite the clear benefits of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE), the research exposed massive hurdles in how the policy is executed. Only about 9% of schools surveyed previously met the Department of Education’s (DepEd) minimum standards for effective implementation.
The system is plagued by shortages in teacher training, funding, monitoring, and localized instructional materials. Although materials have been developed in 19 Philippine languages, distribution remains highly uneven.
“Language policy works when it is evidence-based, implementable, culturally rooted and politically understandable,” Metila said, noting that the goal is to fix the policy’s execution rather than scrap it entirely.
“As always, the challenge is, and has always been, implementation,” Monje added.
Former Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus emphasized that shifting demographics and regional migration mean language policies must be continuously updated based on fresh data.
DepEd Teaching and Learning Division Chief Education Program Specialist Rosalina Villanesa reinforced the idea that true education requires deep understanding rather than mere classroom attendance.
“What happens to learning when instruction is delivered in a language not fully understood by learners?” asked Villanesa. “Learning is not only instruction exposure. It is comprehension and meaning-making.”
Linguist Ricardo Ma. Duran Nolasco added that the scope of language policy reaches far beyond test scores, directly impacting cultural identity and social inclusion for young Filipinos.