Section 5. Medium of Instruction. — The State shall hereby adopt the mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) method. The mother tongue of the learner shall be the primary medium of instruction for teaching and learning in the kindergarten level. However, exceptions shall be made to the following cases:
When the pupils in the kindergarten classroom have different mother tongues or when some of them speak another mother tongue;
When the teacher does not speak the mother tongue of the learners;
When resources, in line with the use of the mother tongue, are not yet available; and
When teachers are not yet trained how to use the MTB-MLE program.
In such exceptional cases, the primary medium of instruction shall be determined by the DepEd aligned with the framework being used in the elementary level including teacher training and production of local resources and materials under DepEd Order No. 74, series of 2009.
The DepEd, in coordination with the Commission on Filipino Language and in close collaboration with academic and research institutions concerned with education, shall formulate a mother tongue-based multilingual framework for teaching and learning: Provided, That the DepEd will include teaching strategies as defined in Section 7 (c) which aims to introduce and eventually strengthen the child's understanding of English, which is the official language.