By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
“Not knowing how to read is different from being illiterate” – Briones
Note: This is a continuation of our series on the reaction of DepEd to the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) report “70,000 Bicol pupils can’t read – DepEd”:
What Secretary Leonor Briones said:
The problem in Bicol is not about literacy but about reading comprehension, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said on Monday, as she sought to correct and clarify an Inquirer report saying that some 70,000 students in the region could not read in both English and Filipino.
Briones said this did not mean that the Bicol learners were illiterate or were “no read, no write.”
“Not knowing how to read is different from being illiterate,” she said at a press briefing in Malacañang.
Briones said the use of the words “do not know how to read” did not mean no read, no write.
“There are those who can read but could not comprehend. There are different levels,” she explained.
“Pupils’ problem not literacy but reading comprehension – DepEd,” PDI, February 18, 2020
Phil-IRI definition of “non-readers:”
“For purposes of the Phil-IRI, non-readers are also identified. Non-readers are pupils who are unable: to recognize and sound out letter-sound connections for single consonants; to recognize and sound out letter-sound connections for some consonant blends; to blend consonants and vowels in simple one-word (cvc, ccvc, cvcc) patterns; and to distinguish among long and short vowels that follow rules.” Phil-IRI-Oral Manual issued in 2010
Part of the PDI story “70,000 Bicol pupils can’t read – DepEd”:
In Legazpi City’s Pagasa National High School, 37 out of more than 600 Grade 7 students did not know how to read, according to its principal, Jeremy Cruz.
“The problem was already solved. What we did was to organize one class for the non- and slow readers with a very passionate, dedicated, competent and patient teacher so that the interventions and the activities will be properly executed,” Cruz said.
My comment:
Whatever their comments nitpicking and downplaying the PDI report, Secretary Briones and other DepEd officials did not go as far as claim that the word “non-reader” was not in the data released to the PDI. So it is fair to assume that Secretary Briones is not aware of the definition given by the Phil-IRI to the word “non-readers” since she tried to give it a different meaning.
Given the Phil-IRI definition of a “non-reader,” is there room to claim that the Bicol children identified as non-readers could read but only cannot comprehend, that somehow they are literate? Are they not the “no read, no write” types? How could anyone who knows the Phil-IRI definition still attempt to interpret the word some other way?
The meaning of “non-reader” is unmistakable in the portion of the PDI story cited above. Principal Cruz mentioned “non-readers” and “slow readers” as distinct from the other so it is clear that those students were assessed to fall under the definition of the Phil-IRI of “non-readers” and not as “struggling readers” as DepEd-Region 5 would later claim after the strident reaction from DepEd national officials.
It is very revealing that in their effort to downplay and question the accuracy of the PDI report, the DepEd officials including Secretary Briones were silent on the case of the 37 Grade 7 non-readers in the Pagasa National High School. Apparently, they did not realize that in failing to address and debunk the existence of the 37 Grade 7 non-readers in the Legazpi City school, all their defenses against the allegations of the report on non-readers in the elementary level were for naught because if there are that many non-readers in one high school in the center of the region, how could there be less in the elementary schools and high schools in other parts of Bicol? One of the findings in the DepEd report on our performance in the PISA was that the students from the urban areas outperformed those from the rural areas by a significant 42 score points in Reading Literacy.**
