By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
The Department of Education (DepEd) has yet to speak up on the growing presence of non-readers in high school but slowly the problem is coming to light. The alarm was first sounded in 2014 when it was reported in the media that a reading test conducted by the DepEd among Grade 6 students of Valenzuela City showed that roughly one of every 10 were non-readers while eight out of the 10 were frustration level readers. The documentary “Pag-asa sa Pagbasa” in GMA7’s “I Witness” program on September 1, 2018 documented the struggle of the faculty at the Sauyo National High School in Novaliches, Quezon City to belatedly teach around 80 Grade 7 students with severe reading deficiencies including some non-readers the skill of reading.
Already two regional offices of the DepEd openly acknowledge that the phenomenon exists in their areas. Titled “Regional Training on Grades 4-8 reading teachers on Care for Non-readers (CNR) Program,” a memorandum posted in website of DepEd Region 12 (HRDD No. 20, s. 2018) indicates there are non-readers in Grades 7 and 8 in that region while Regional Memorandum 18-312 issued by DepEd Region IV-A on June 5, 2018 enjoining support for their reading intervention program cited reports that “there are still non-readers in grades 7 and 8 and readers with poor comprehension in higher grades.”
There is an irony in the development. What is happening now is the exact opposite of what the DepEd wanted to achieve. In 2001, the agency launched the Every Child A Reader Program (ECARP) which set Grade 3 as the stage when pupils attain reading proficiency and in 2010, the 10-Point Agenda for Basic Education Reform of the Aquino Administration targeted that every child should be a reader in Grade 1 by the end of the term of Aquino in 2016.
DepEd has no one else to blame for the monumental failure except itself. The plans were unsound. While envisioning better quality of education, the DepEd relaxed the standards. The ECARP and the Ten Point Agenda gave the Filipino child three years and two years, respectively, to learn a skill previous generations of Filipinos acquired in one year and that does not include the mandatory Kindergarten. By the leeway they gave the child to learn to read, the two programs set aside the rule that a Grade 1 cannot proceed unless he knows how to read which had served to ensure that Filipino children of past generations were equipped with the reading skill they need to proceed with their search for knowledge. The blunder has robbed the passage of a Grade 1 pupil to literacy of the old urgency which manifested itself in maximum cooperation and best efforts from everyone concerned with the success of the child – the teacher, the family and the child himself.
To make things worse, the DepEd came up with the mass promotion policy opening wider the door for laggards to move through the grades and eventually graduate from the elementary without learning to read. Under the policy, a student with up to three failures could still proceed to the next grade if he enrolls and passes the subjects in summer. The policy also compels teachers of laggards to give them remedial lessons during their free time and that includes the summer months if need be. In many cases, rather than go through all that trouble, the teachers would just pass even their underserving students or how else would there be any non-readers in high school?
Then there is the policy of tying up the drop out and retained rates with the performance ratings of teachers and the school as though all the factors which lead to the decision to stay or drop out and all the circumstances surrounding the performance of a pupil in school are within the control of teachers and the school. Even with the problem of non-readers in high school and the very low scores in the National Achievement Test staring them in the face, DepEd cannot still get it that passing everyone in the class or the “No child left behind” stance does not do the undeserving student and the educational system any good.
All these brainchildren of the brilliant minds in the DepEd have assured we have a steady supply Grade 7 non-readers every school year.
If the DepEd wants to turn things around, it should restore the old “No read, no pass” rule. If previous generations who did not undergo Kindergarten could learn reading in Grade 1, there is no reason today’s children could not do the same unless the DepEd could show proof that the IQ of the new generation of Filipinos is inferior to that of their predecessors.
Finally, the growing number of non-readers in high school tells us clearly that the recent innovations on our educational system including the K-12 curriculum are not bringing us any closer but rather farther from the ambition “Every Child a Reader in Grade 1.” This year’s batch of Grade 7 non-readers are the first elementary grade products of the K-12 curriculum. **
