30% OF STUDENTS HAVE LOW READING COMPREHENSION: City Hall, USAID aim to boost learners’ performance

By John Noel E. Herrera

The Iloilo City Government and the Department of Education (DepEd)-Iloilo City partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its ABC+: Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines project to boost the education performance of Ilonggo students.

On Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, together with the USAID Education Office Director Thomas LeBlanc, ABC+ Chief of Party Ina Aquino and DepEd-Iloilo City OIC Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Novelyn Vilchez led the launching of the Education Sector Mechanism (ESM) program, which is a localized multi-stakeholder approach to “plan, design, invest, and implement interventions to boost early grade learning in the city.”

USAID ABC+ Chief of Party Ina Aquino said that through ESM, resources could be mobilized and managed to give focus to early-grade children (kindergarten to grade 3) and improve their learning outcomes, particularly in reading, math, and socio-emotional skills.

Treñas also signed an executive order (EO) adopting the ESM process in the city as it would “discuss the challenges in the state of basic education, identify investible projects, and strategize interventions for efficient resource utilization.”

The city mayor noted that the program would be beneficial in building healthier communities and essential in developing the literacy of children, “something that increases our understanding about everything in life.”

Meanwhile, Aquino revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic and school disruption affected the reading skills of students in Western Visayas as they were struggling to meet the minimum required proficiency in reading.

“Nakita na natin ito nung pandemic na kailangan magtulungan lahat pati parents, ang community, private sectors. Bumalik na ‘yung mga bata, pero kailangan pa rin ng tulong. Nagkaroon kami ng assessment, grade 3, 4 pero hindi pa rin nakaka-recognize ng letters kasi wala sila sa eskwelahan ng dalawang taon,” Aquino said.

Aquino emphasized that there is still a huge gap in the reading skills of students in the region as their latest assessment revealed that more than 30 percent of students (Kindergarten to Grade 3) still have low reading comprehension.

“Ang pagtuturo po kasi ng pagbabasa ay very systematic at may proseso po siya at structured. Ito po yung nawala nung pandemic dahil walang interaction ang teachers saka yung bata,” she added.

USAID Director Thomas LeBlanc encouraged other local government units and the private sector to join the cause for early-grade learners as “achieving sustainable solutions to challenges in education and beyond requires close collaboration not only with DepEd, but with other stakeholders.”

Recently, USAID, through its ABC+ program, handed over reading materials to all the schools in Western Visayas as they targeted to give away 7.5 million units of books worth P38 million in the region alone.

The reading materials, which include picture books, storybooks, and leveled readers, are written in the mother tongue, English, and Filipino to also address gaps in the reading practices of young learners and help students in Kindergarten through Grade 3 develop foundational reading skills.

USAID said that the ABC+ program aims to boost the early literacy of children in their mother tongue, as well as to prepare their reading ability for transition to Filipino and English, and develop their foundational concepts and skills in Mathematics.

ABC+ also reinforces instructional processes concerned with children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, as teachers are also trained to enact appropriate remedial measures to handle the reading gaps among children and transform them to become “reading ready” as classes start.