'Starting Where the Children Are': A Process Evaluation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education Implementation

This process evaluation determines how the program is proceeding since the passage of Republic Act 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013. It specifically looked at program theory, service delivery and utilization, and program organization. To capture the breadth of conceptual and implementation issues, 18 randomly selected elementary schools were visited from among private and public school systems, distributed according to Department of Education’s (DepEd) typology of small, medium, and large schools; island groupings of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao; and from both linguistically diverse contexts and less linguistically diverse communities. Key informant interviews with former and current DepEd officials at the national, regional, and division levels, and focus group discussions with teachers and parents were done. An online survey to determine the extent of implementation at the school level was also conducted. Findings show the breadth of challenges the program is facing emanating from conceptualization to implementation. The online survey revealed that, while almost all schools are implementing the program, the quality of implementation may be wanting as less than 10 percent of schools surveyed have done the four activities required for its implementation. The study recommends improving the implementation of program classified into program logic, service delivery and utilization, and program organization. Overall, the program needs a better appreciation of its existing conceptual problems and the cooperation of all stakeholders for the program to succeed. For the peer-reviewed version of this paper, see Research Paper Series 2021-02.