Lubuagan is a fourth class municipality in the Province of Kalinga in the Cordillera Region. The lingua franca in the municipality is “Lubuagan” just like Bikol for the Bicolanos. According to studies, school drop out rate in the municipality is high and one reason for this is the medium of instruction which is Filipino and English. Sabi, nasusupog daa an mga estudyante lalo na kung dai nakakasimbag kaya dai na lang naglalaog sa klase.

In an attempt to save the Libuagan dialect as well help in the education of the people, the Summer Institute for Language (SIL) International, in coordination with the Department of Education, instituted the Lubuagan Kalinga First Language Component (FLC). Under this project, the elementary students were primarily taught in the Lubuagan dialect and not in English nor Filipino which is the medium of instruction under current educational system. English and Filipino remained though but only as mere subjects and apart from the medium of instruction, nothing has been changed in the curriculum as mandated by the Department of Education. The rationale for this is the idea that when students learn to read and write in their mother tongue before learning to read and write in a second or third language, they progress more quickly both in literacy skills and in second language acquisition.

In 2001, a test was instituted and it was revealed that the students under the FLC performed better than those which were not included in the program. They scored 54.32% in Filipino and 54.65% in English as opposed to 35.08% and 36.63%, respectively, of the non-FLC students. In 2007, according to the eskwelahan.net, “Lubuagan District Grade 3 students ranked number 1 in the Kalinga Division on the 2006 NAT Grade 3 Reading Test, scoring 15-25% higher than all other Kalinga Division districts in the English and Filipino reading tests.” The explanation for this, the Kalinga Schools District Superintendent said, is the multi-lingual language program of the FLC project.

Kun sabagay, paano kaya talaga maituturo sa mga estudyante ano an importansiya kan pagbasa nin English o kaya Filipino/Tagalog kun dai ninda naiintindihan an saindang binabsa? O kaya paano ninda maaapresyar an matematika kun dai ninda maintindihan an “1”, an “plus”, an “equals” asin an “2”? Pero kun sabihon na an “saro dagdagan ki saro an resulta duwa”, mas makaskas ninda iyan na masasabutan asin maaapresiyar.

The FLC project is indeed interesting. Sana igwa man kaan na proyekto digdi sa Bicol. An problema masyadong dakula an colonial influence sa sistema kan edukasyon digdi sa Pilipinas. Mala ta grabe an emphasis sa English. Is this in preparation for developing more Filipino domestic helpers and caregivers in the future? It seems so. Mala ta may mga huring-huding hale sa Malakanyang na arog daa kaiyan an thrust considering na an mga OFWs an nakapagsalbar sa satuyang ekonomiya dahil sa influx kan dolyar. Kun totoo an huring-huding na yan, sarong makamurumundo na realidad na an gobyerno ta mismo an nagpapababa kan moralidad asin statura kan mga Pilipino.

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