By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Recently, the schools division superintendents (SDS) of Makati City, Dagupan City, City of Malolos, Batangas and Cabuyao City defied the unwritten mass promotion policy of the Department of Education (DepEd) by declaring that they will enforce in their areas the sidelined “No Read, No Pass” policy under which no learner can be promoted to Grade 4 unless he or she could read.
The memoranda unwittingly spotlighted some telling facts on the reading crisis and how the DepEd is handling it.
In Division Memorandum No. 150, s. 2024, titled “Reiteration of the ‘No Read, No Pass Policy’ and Update on the Reading Profiles of the Key Stage 1 Learners,” Makati SDS Ma. Evalou Agustin indirectly pointed out the DepEd folly which crippled the country’s reading literacy as follows: “Non-readers or learners who cannot even decode letters will not be able to cope with any of the academic requirements that will enable them to pass any of the subjects thus, no learning will take place.”
For more than two decades now, the DepEd has been acting as though the opposite of the principle stated by Agustin was true. In fact, DepEd insists that non-readers can handle senior high school academic load. Among the findings of the study “Experiences of Senior High School Teachers in DepEd’s Retention and Promotion Policy” published in ResearchGate is “prevalence of non-readers” among the senior high school students of the West Visayas State University in the second semester of SY 2018-2019.
In Division Memorandum No. 99, s. 2024, Dagupan City SDS Rowena Banzon had captured the sad result of DepEd’s absurd policy of passing reading laggards to any grade for all the world to see. She set the following localized reading standards which schools must observe when deciding on the promotion of students: “Grade 1 – Word level; Grade 2 – Sentence level; Grade 3 – Paragraph level; Grade 4 – Story level; Grade 5 – Story level with comprehension; Grade 6 – Local materials with comprehension; Grade 7 – Academic materials with comprehension.”
The localized standards is worlds apart from the K to 12 Curriculum standards because under the latter, learners already read in English with comprehension by Grade 3. That such weak reading literacy is the aim of the DepEd-Dagupan City’s reading policy shows just how dismal the current situation is.
DepEd-City of Malolos SDS Leilani Cunanan debunked the myth that the non-reader problem is confined to the elementary level being subtly peddled by DepEd national officials though their deafening silence on the issue of high school non-readers. Division Memorandum No. 229, s. 2023, which is captioned “Division Monitoring and Validation Anchored to the DepEd Reading Program ‘No Read, No Pass’ Policy for Elementary and Secondary Learners” explicitly declares that the “No Read, No Pass” Policy will be applied on elementary and secondary students.
In DepEd-Batangas Division Memorandum No. 013, s. 2024, SDS Marites Ibanez wrote that DepEd Order No. 45, series of 2002, shall be enforced in SY 2023-2024 “to attain zero non-reader in all public elementary level within the division.”
By contrast, the guidelines of the responses of the DepEd to the reading crisis namely the “Bawat Bata Bumabasa” and now the “Catch-up Fridays” declare that the goal of the programs is “to strengthen the reading proficiency of every learner” but are silent on what happens to unresponsive learners at the end of the school year.
That’s what separates the wheat from the chaff. The position of the five DepEd field officials that the solution to the reading crisis lies in the “No Read, No Pass” policy is supported by the following facts: for generations until 2001 when DepEd scuttled the old “No Read, No Move” policy, there were no non-readers in Grade 2 in the country; and private schools which have not fallen for the DepEd lie that learning can happen sans reading skills still have no non-reader problem.
Meanwhile, the utter folly of DepEd’s belief that its goal “to strengthen the reading proficiency of every learner” can be attained even while passing reading laggards to any grade is exposed by the presence of non-readers in high school. (Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer April 17, 2024 issue)
