Press Release
June 23, 2012

ANGARA: INCLUDE SPANISH IN HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Senator Edgardo J. Angara underscored the importance of incorporating Spanish into the basic education curriculum for more value-added learning, especially in public schools.

During the recent press conference of the 10th Philippine-Spanish friendship Day, the veteran legislator said that since a lot of private high schools already require a foreign language class, it is logical to also do the same for the public high schools.

"The potential for introducing Spanish into the new K to 12 curriculum is good. There are three tracks in this new curriculum: arts, sports and technical-vocational.We can integrate Spanish into the arts track for Grades 11 and 12 so that students can learn a foreign language as early as high school," explained Angara.

"Implementing this in public high schools all over the country will give students a head start and prepare them for more advanced language classes in college," said Angara, Chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture.

Angara, the first Southeast Asian to win Spain's foreign policy prize Premio Casa Asia for his work in strengthening Philippine-Spanish relations, emphasized that knowing a foreign language is very much in demand in the workplace.

He added that Spanish is the second most studied language in the world after English, and the second most widely spoken native language after Chinese.

"Multinational companies and BPO's place a premium on the mastery of Spanish. A lot of BPO's whose clients are in Hispanic countries are looking for fluent Spanish speakers, and are willing to provide a much higher compensation for the value-added skill," remarked Angara.

He further stressed that while other European languages are being offered as an elective, Filipinos would derive enormous benefit from learning Spanish, considering that much of our country's history is intertwined with Spain's.

Spanish is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations and the official language of a record number 21 countries, making Spanish-speakers more globally competitive.

News Latest News Feed