By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Based on Department of Education (DepEd) records, you spearheaded the move to scrap the time-honored “No Read, No Move” policy under which Grade 1 pupils could only be promoted when they already know how to read. DepEd Order No. 45, s. 2002, which you issued as Officer-in-Charge unveiled the “no promotion beyond Grade 3 for non-readers” policy which effectively superseded the “No Read, No Move” policy.
Your action was out of the blue because for over a century, the “No Read, No Move” policy had ensured that all Grade 2 enrollees already know how to read such that before you presumed to touch the policy, the reading problem in our schools was limited to some pupils who lacked comprehension. Then Education Secretary Raul Roco had attested to that fact when, in reference to the 2002 Basic Education Curriculum, he wrote in DepEd Order No. 25, s. 2002: “It seeks to cure the inability of students who cannot read with comprehension at grade 3 and worse, at grade 6.”
DepEd Order No. 45, s. 2002, does not present any rationale for replacing the time-tested policy with the obviously inferior alternative. However, the more consequential question now is why you stood by when the DepEd chose not to enforce the order and had instead absurdly thrown open our entire basic education to reading laggards.
Unlike in the discarding of the “No Read, No Move” policy, the decision to disregard the new reading policy was not put on paper. However, thanks to Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, we know that by 2006, DepEd Order No. 45, s. 2002, has already been breached. Lapus included the enforcement of the “no promotion beyond Grade 3 for non-readers” policy among his proposed strategies to strengthen reading instruction contained in the DepEd 2007 annual budget proposal presentation (“Education For All: A Functionally-Literate Philippines!”, slide 16).
Also in 2006, the media had reported that the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory reading assessment test given in Cebu City found 714 non-readers and 32,082 frustration level readers in English in Grades 4 to 6.
The September 2006 issue of the DCS-QC Chronicler of the DepEd-Quezon City also bared that the Krus na Ligas High School already had non-readers at that time.
But even with the evidences that the sidelining of DepEd Order No. 45, s. 2002, was a colossal blunder, you kept mum until you left the agency in 2010 and even until now indicating that even to you, the signatory, the policy is just a joke.
Fast forward to 2024, no less than the Programme for International Student Assessment 2022 rendered a damning verdict on the DepEd’s demolition of both the “No Read, No Move” policy and the “no promotion beyond Grade 3 for non-readers” policy. At 333, the score of our public school students in reading approximates the score of the 80th among the 81 participating countries. On the other hand, private school students scored 416 which is at the level of the 52nd ranked country. A gulf of 28 rungs separate the two groups in the reading rankings thanks to the private schools being smart enough to stick with the “No Read, No Move” policy when the DepEd stupidly dropped it like a hot potato in 2002.
The most lenient private schools have no non-readers beyond Grade 3. On the other hand, per recent remarks of DepEd Undersecretary Gina Gonong to the Second Congressional Commission on Education, there are Grades 7-10 students who could not read and add (“hindi makabasa, hindi maka-add”). The DepEd’s admission was overdue for more than a decade.
Had you not issued DepEd Order No. 45, s. 2002, just like our private schools, our public schools would still be protected from illiteracy now because of the “No Read, No Move” policy.
In fairness to you, the “no promotion beyond Grade 3 for non-readers” policy could contain illiteracy in Grades 1-3 which is worlds apart from the present situation where there are non-readers even in Grade 12. You therefore owe the country an explanation for ironically turning your back on DepEd Order No. 45, s. 2002, before the ink was dry on the document.**
