Education summit reveals ‘deficient reading skills’

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

The provincial government of Iloilo, in partnership with Synergeia Foundation, Inc., hosted an education summit on Wednesday to tackle fundamental issues in the education sector after two years of the pandemic and improve the quality of learners in the province.

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. said the summit seeks to address the present learning and performance status of the students. Citing Department of Education (DepEd) data, he pointed out the alarming deficiency in reading skills among Ilonggo students.

In a DepEd assessment data presented by Synergeia Foundation, Inc. president and chief executive officer Milwida Guevara, 32.69% of Grade 3 students need a full refresher course or are “not grade ready,” while 22.68% need a moderate refresher.

Synergeia Foundation, Inc. is a non-government organization committed to improving the quality of basic education in the Philippines by empowering communities around public schools.

“This summit and the advocacy of Synergeia Foundation, Inc., and your advocacies right now […] sides at the very heart of the first component of our program — an effective education system,” said Defensor in his welcome message.

Defensor said the summit is one of the measures aligned with the province’s education banner program, Bulig Eskwela Sang Probinsya Program” (BES Probins Program).

The BES Probins Program, which was signed through Executive Order 420 in September 2022, is a comprehensive program aimed to implement an effective, relevant, and transformative educational system in Iloilo province.

The program includes three components: support for infrastructure, facilities, and operations of public schools; localized implementation of the Secondary Schools Career Guidance and Counseling Act; and voter education program.

Defensor furthered that there is a need for appropriate interventions since “there are interventions that are not in the present system in teaching methods of our present education system.”

He added that access to education, particularly the availability and accessibility of schools to learners, and poverty incidence are among the major challenges that confront the education sector in the province.

“We are committed to engaging the communities to the fullest so that we can fill the gaps in this collaboration,” he added, emphasizing that education is not a devolved function of the government and should be treated as “a core function and a responsibility.”

Meanwhile, Board Member and chairperson of the Committee on Education of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Jason Gonzales described the summit as a “diagnostic tool” to identify and understand the most pressing issues in the education sector.

He emphasized that the summit provided valuable insights to education stakeholders and government officials into the significant problem of reading proficiency.

“We saw here that the biggest problem we face is reading and that includes literacy and numeracy aspects… This is a good diagnostic mechanism so we can understand the problem we are facing,” he explained.

“We will do what needs to be done. But we have to know what are the appropriate interventions. We need to understand that this is just step one of a very long journey,” Gonzales added.

The education summit brought together officials and personnel from DepEd-Iloilo, local government executives from the 43 towns in the province, socio-civic groups, and various education stakeholders.