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Gatchalian sponsors bill on mother tongue use in schools: Sen. Win Gatchalian, chairperson of the Committee on Basic Education, sponsors Senate Bill No. 2457 (SBN 2457) which seeks to redefine the application of mother tongue as medium of instruction from kindergarten to Grade 3. During Wednesday’s plenary session, November 29, 2023, Gatchalian pointed out that evidence on hand shows that the uniform application of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) to multilingual learning environments across the Philippines during key stage one or kindergarten to grade 3 is neither desirable nor advantageous to boosting learner outcomes. He expressed hope that the simple but long-reaching reform embodied by the bill will improve learner outcomes during the critical early stages of basic education. “The time for experimentation is over. It is time for us to apply our learnings over the last decade in recalibrating the mother tongue-based multilingual education policy to match the multilingual context of our diverse Filipino population,” Gatchalian said. (Joseph Vidal / Senate Social Media Unit)