By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program” (TBTP) which aims to teach incoming Grade 2 non-readers to read while offering short-term work for poor college students is now a flagship government program under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through Executive Order No. 76 issued last November 2024. Among those mandated by the order to lend their full support and cooperation in the implementation and expansion of the TBTP are national government agencies and local government units (LGUs).
The mandate is a signal for LGUs to go all out against poor reading literacy in public schools and its root cause – the mass promotion practice of the Department of Education (DepEd). The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) can unleash the full force of LGUs against the reading crisis and its root cause by working into the criteria of the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awards appropriate targets towards the minimization and eventual stamping out of illiteracy in their schools. The move is logical because the SGLG recognizes excellent LGU governance and is therefore incongruous with schools that are teeming with reading laggards.
The SGLG assesses “sustainable education” gauging the same through the implementation of “education reforms and programs to support the vision of quality education for all.”
In addition to what the TBTP may require them to do, LGUs could carry out the following:
1. Utilizing volunteers from private schools and civil society organizations (CSOs), the LGU could annually conduct a simple literacy test to surface all non-readers and struggling readers from Grades 2 to 12 the purpose of which is to determine the total number of the reading laggards in schools in the LGU and thus the extent of illiteracy in their schools. Names of schools with their corresponding number of reading laggards will be recorded. The results will be publicized.
One of the factors which contributed to the development of the reading crisis is although the DepEd has been conducting the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) reading assessment test since 2004, it withheld the results from the public. That was the reason the country was blindsided by the reading result of the 2018 Programme for International Reading Assessment (PISA) wherein we were last of 79 countries. Had the DepEd been reporting the results of the Phil-IRI faithfully, the reading crisis would not have happened as other arms of government and private groups would have intervened very much earlier.
2. Using the results of the literacy survey, the LGU will ask the DepEd to stop the mass promotion of non-readers by enforcing DepEd Order No. 45, series of 2002, which bars the promotion of non-readers and struggling readers to Grade 4. If the DepEd will not listen, still with the data on reading laggards, the LGU will request Malacanang to issue an executive order mandating DepEd to stop the mass promotion practice and/or petition Congress to enact a law outlawing the practice.
3. Summon their local DepEd officials to explain why there are non-readers and struggling readers from Grade 4 upwards in public schools in the LGU when the K to 12 Curriculum provides that learners read in English with comprehension by the end of Grade 3 and DepEd Order No. 45, series of 2002, bars the promotion of reading laggards to Grade 4. Though a resolution, the LGU will demand that elementary schools in the LGU to follow the grade level reading standards of the curriculum and enforce DepEd Order No. 45, series of 2002.
4. Constantly remind parents that their children are supposed to be competent readers by the end of Grade 3 thus they should monitor the reading progress of their children and also help the latter to beat the deadline. In the event that their children could not read by the end of Grade 3, the parents should report the matter to the LGU.
5. Hold annual awards for schools with the least reading laggards. In some years, they could also recognize the schools with the worst illiteracy rates. A team composed of private school personnel and representatives from CSOs to do the validation. (Dear reader, so sorry I was unable to update this piece which was written sometime late last year. But I will give you the latest on this issue soonest.)
