THE release of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EdCom 2) Final Report and the National Education Plan marks an important moment for Philippine education. Both documents reflect a serious effort to respond to long-standing challenges in learning outcomes, access and governance. They are grounded in data, informed by international benchmarks and shaped by a sense of urgency about the country’s learning crisis.
Among the studies cited in the report are findings from the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics, which point to a recurring pattern across the region: Students tend to struggle when the language spoken at home differs from the language used as the medium of instruction in school. This observation is neither surprising nor uniquely Filipino. It is a well-documented reality in multilingual societies, and its inclusion in the report signals an awareness that language matters in learning.
What the documents show, however, is that while language-related challenges are acknowledged, they are not yet fully articulated as a central organizing principle of reform. The National Education Plan recognizes the complexity of language issues but stops short of laying out a comprehensive national strategy for addressing them. Questions such as how first languages might be more systematically used in early grades, how teachers can be prepared for multilingual classrooms, how multilingual practices might be supported, or how comprehension can be assessed across languages remain open.
As a result, language is often treated in policy discussions as a technical variable — something that affects comprehension, test performance and learning efficiency. This framing is understandable in a reform agenda focused on measurable outcomes and system improvement. At the same time, it highlights a broader reality: Language in education is not only a cognitive tool but also a social experience. For many learners, language is closely tied to identity, community and belonging. The language used in the classroom can shape how children see themselves as learners — whether they feel recognized or merely accommodated, confident or tentative, included or peripheral. These dimensions are more difficult to quantify, and they tend to receive less attention in large-scale reform frameworks, even though they quietly influence participation and engagement.
The strength of the EdCom 2 Final Report and the National Education Plan lies in their technocratic clarity. They are particularly strong on governance reforms, early childhood education, institutional coordination and data-driven decision-making. They diagnose inequality with precision and propose structural solutions that aim to improve efficiency and accountability. At the same time, the documents reflect an ongoing tension common to education reform: the balance between system-level change and deeper social transformation. While access, infrastructure and standards can be addressed through policy design, issues such as language hierarchy, cultural recognition and community knowledge often evolve more gradually and through practice as much as through formal directives.
Seen in this light, the current education reform agenda does not settle the question of language in learning. Instead, it situates language as an enduring reality — one that continues to shape how learners encounter school, knowledge and opportunity in a multilingual nation. The documents acknowledge this reality, even as they leave space for future conversations on how language might be more fully integrated into the country’s vision of inclusive and meaningful education. The conversation on language and learning is not necessarily absent; rather, it remains unsettled and, for that reason, ongoing.
Ariane Macalinga Borlongan is a public intellectual, language scholar and migrant advocate. He is one of the leading researchers on English in the Philippines and one of the pioneers of migration linguistics. He is the youngest to earn a doctorate in linguistics, at age 23, from De La Salle University, and has had several teaching and research positions in Germany, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland and Singapore. He is currently associate professor of sociolinguistics at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
