By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Despite BLD Director Areola’s advice that I approach the divisions, on basis of the reporting procedure in the old Phil-IRI manual which states that the results are to be consolidated at every level starting from the school all the way to the BEE, I still tried researching with Regions 2 and CAR.
Region 2 Curriculum and Learning Management Division Chief Octavio Cabasag told me that the Phil-IRI is a school level concern with the data stopping in the division; that the data is interpreted at the lower levels for purposes of coming up with intervention and catch up plans and addressing the development needs of learners. He would later inform though that the regional office looks at and analyzes the figures for non-readers, frustration, instructional and independent readers region-wide. Simplifying my request, I said what I need is the total number of non-readers in the region to which he answered that he has to ask the division offices to submit their data. Aside from that, after explaining that there is an understanding to keep the data at the division level, he suggested I go to the divisions.
On January 17, I was able to talk to EPS-English Josephine Gammad and EPS-Filipino Cora Pattaguan of the Tuguegarao City Division. They told me that their office does not have past Phil-IRI data; that there was a two-year hiatus in the conduct of the rest and it was only resumed in SY 2017-2018. The only data they showed me were the results of group screening test (GST) for English for this school year for one of the four district of the city which are as follows: Grade 4 (oral): independent – 133; instructional – 214; frustration – 87; (silent) ): independent – 386; instructional – 315; frustration – 150; Grade 5 (oral) independent – 111; instructional – 265; frustration – 122; (silent) ): independent – 479; instructional – 331; frustration – 146; and Grade 6 (oral) independent – 185; instructional – 163; frustration – 124; (silent) ): independent – 412; instructional – 365; frustration – 159. Gammad said that the data were as reported by the school heads. She assured that there are no non-readers in the division.
EPS Pattaguan said they are not consolidating the Filipino results because under RA 1995, schools are mandated to act to enhance reading abilities of students in their schools. She, however, said the results are better than in English because the students already possess reading skills in Filipino.
Over in the CAR, regional EPS-English Patricio Dawaton said that they do not consolidate Phil-IRI results because unless the region asks the divisions, the data would stop at the division level. When I asked how the region and national offices monitor the state of reading proficiency in the CAR without the consolidated data, he said there are times the national office gets data directly from the division. He explained that he could get the data from the divisions but this time, he had not yet done so. He said there was no consolidated data for last school year because there was no Phil-IRI tests in the region that time due to lack of materials except for Mountain Province which used the locally prepared CAR-IRI. He also suggested that I go to the division level.
Baguio City Division EPS-English Armie Fiangaan said that they do not have data on the results of the Phil-IRI, not even their Planning Division is keeping any. She explained that for a time after SY 2003-2004, some schools stopped conducting the Phil-IRI due to the outdated materials. She recalled that in 2016, when she asked teachers about the reading test, the new ones were not even aware of its existence. She said that to measure the reading levels of students, some schools use the performance of the students in English in the National Achievement Test which she said was not valid because the subject area is intended to tests the knowledge of the takers in English and not just in reading. According to her, the revised Phil-IRI answers the previous concerns on the reading test.
EPS-English Francis Peckley said the Benguet Division does not have any Phil-IRI data because they have stopped using the Phil-IRI when the Early Language Literacy and Numeracy Program was introduced. When I asked if what he means is they have disposed of the records, he said that the Phil-IRI is school based and when he assumed the position three years earlier, nobody was already submitting Phil-IRI data.
On January 3, I emailed Dawaton to request for the “ by division or consolidated regional results of the English Phil-IRI 2018-2019 pre-test by grades” including the total division or regional enrolment of the grades but he answered via text messaging that the data was not yet available. **(To be continued)
