My fiancée left me a message yesterday saying she was happy that her son is going to a private school as the Government Schools will no longer be using English as their main language. I confirmed this with a Filipino teacher who is about to undergo training for the new school curriculum. Wikipedia has an article on education in the Philippines and mentions this move away from English. So, Grade 1&2 students will now be taught in mother tongue, with a transition to teaching in English and Filipino by grade3/4... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_Philippines The revision to mother-tongue language teaching may well be beneficial for children who start school with no English language skills but those who have partners in the Philippines with young children, it may be worth paying for private education to ensure continued education in English and a smoother transition when they move to the UK. The revised education system now adds Kindergarten for 5 year-old's and the former 'high school' is now called Junior High School and a new two-year Senior High School means a total of three years is added to the government education system.
Wonderful so they are abandoning one of the great strengths of their education system. James has been at private school for the last three years, it's not that expensive but I am sure it will get more so, Janna is due to start school in a few weeks and just to pile on the expense apparently she can't go to the same one as James so now we have two sets of transport costs. To put that in perspective the transport costs are as much as the school fees, 1500 peso a month.
Ah ok I skimmed your point too quickly, it's just a delay till later years before they start English, my daughter understands English but she really does not speak any which is one of the reasons I hate being stuck here, they should have a native speaker around them all the time rather than just a couple of weeks a year and Ana and the rest of the family do not make enough effort to speak English, Ana in particular as although her English is far from perfect it is much better than the rest of them.
