By Estanislao Albano. Jr.
For over a decade now, the country has been having elementary school graduates who could not read their graduation certificates. The tragedy is happening because apparently, concerned Department of Education (DepEd) school officials do not realize that certifying non-readers and frustration level readers as eligible for graduation from the elementary grades is a crime.
Per the sample template provided by DepEd Order No. 002, series of 2019, public elementary school graduation certificates confirm that the candidate “has satisfactorily completed all the requirements of the Elementary Curriculum as prescribed by the Department of Education.”
If the candidate for graduation is a non-reader or a frustration level reader, then the issuance of the certificate constitutes the crime falsification.
Obviously, reading being a fundamental skill essential to learning, it is a patent falsification to certify that a learner who does not know how to read or could barely read has satisfactorily completed the requirements of the elementary curriculum. Reading is one of the main competencies taught and developed in the Mother Tongue, Filipino and English subjects. In fact, per grade level standards of the curriculum, learners are supposed to begin reading in the Mother Tongue and in Filipino in Grade 1 and starting in Grade 3 in English (Mother Tongue Curriculum Guide, page 11; Filipino Curriculum Guide, page 5; and English Curriculum Guide, page 53).
With the gravity of the offense and its obvious devastating impact on the quality of our basic education, it is damning and revealing that DepEd authorities in all levels have said nothing and done absolutely nothing to stop the criminal activity such that it was again rampantly committed in SY 2023-2024. That’s despite the fact that back in February 2019, state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies had already advised the DepEd to rethink the mass promotion practice and to stop sending non-readers to high school (“Pressures on public school teachers and implications on quality”).
Not even after a solid evidence that the criminal wrongdoing is pervasive has been unveiled right in the Bulwagan ng Karunungan at the DepEd central office. One of the papers presented during the July 11, 2023 episode of the “Research o’ Clock,” the DepEd’s regular research forum showcasing the findings of studies funded by its Basic Education Research Fund research program, was the action research “Improving the Reading Comprehension of Public Secondary Online Learners through Project G.L.E.E. (Getting Learners Engaged and Elevated)”. The respondents of the action research were the 60 frustration readers enrolled in Grade 10 at the Pasay City North National High School in SY 2021-2022.
Given that the K to 12 Curriculum learning standards provide that by the end of Grade 3, learners should be able to read with comprehension in English, neither could frustration readers be declared as having satisfactorily completed all the requirements of the elementary school curriculum.
Just in case Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara who is a lawyer will open his eyes to the fact that each reading laggard in high school is an evidence of the crime of falsification and decides to go after the culprits, here are two more specific cases he could launch the long overdue crackdown with:
The Eastern Bacoor National High School had 60 non-readers and 400 frustration level readers in Grades 7 to 10 in SY 2022-2023. The information is contained in the abstract of the action research “Project LIGHT: Utilizing Contextualized Reading Texts Combined with Interactive Approach as Reading Intervention Strategy for Struggling Readers” posted in the DepEd-Bacoor City Schools Division website.
Based on the results of the reading assessment test the Pambujan National High School in Northern Samar conducted during the SY 2024-2025 enrollment period posted in its official Facebook page, 1.3 percent of the school’s current Grade 7 students are non-readers and another 16.7 percent are frustration level readers.
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