THE Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday described as out of context a newspaper report that 70, 000 Bicol learners are non-readers in both English and Filipino, saying the story was based on raw data that the DepEd precisely gathers to determine whether children at certain levels can read age-appropriate material. The data on which the story was based in no way pictured the children as illiterate.
In response to a news story, Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones explained that the report on the number of non-readers was “premature and needs proper context.”
Clarified Briones, “It’s not a no-read, no-write case. Phil-IRI is an assessment tool of DepEd to determine whether the reading proficiency of a student is appropriate to their grade, it does not mean they do not know how to read.”
She was referring to a local pre-test result of the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI), which was conducted to determine interventions needed by learners.
The DepEd chief said the figure of 70,000 elementary students reported as being non-readers in both English and Filipino was “raw data” and “is still for validation.”
Phil-IRI is conducted at the beginning of school year to identify students in Grades 4-6 in English and Grades 3-6 in Filipino who need additional intervention in reading.
“Let us be very careful in interpreting numbers and words. Let’s be precise in our words and put the right context when reporting data. In this situation, there are levels of reading literacy and we cannot conclude that these learners [in Bicol] do not know how to read,” emphasized Briones.
Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instructions Diosdado San Antonio further clarified that a Phil-IRI post-test will still be administered at the end of school year to complete the analysis of data.
He cited significant improvements of learners’ reading proficiency were often observed at the latter part of the school year.
‘Every child, a reader’
Earlier, DepEd launched Bawat Bata Bumabasa (3Bs, or the Filipino phrase for “every child a reader”) initiative last November 2019 as part of the larger campaign Sulong Edukalidad which aims to raise the quality of basic education in the country.
The 3Bs encouraged offices from central to division level and schools to intensify their advocacies for reading to make every learner a reader at their grade level and capacitate teachers to become effective reading instructors.
Secretary Briones, for her part, started visiting top performing public schools nationwide to gain additional insights on their best practices in Reading, Math, and Science.
Last January 31, she visited Baguio City National High School in Benguet, which earned the distinction of getting one of the best Reading scores in the country.
Among the identified best practices by BCNHS were involving parents in the reading activities, providing appropriate reading remediation activities, and maximizing participation of all students in reading-related activities.
Malnutrition
Reacting to the news report that DepEd described as misleading, a leader of the House of Representatives on Monday blamed malnutrition for the problem.
House Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda, who represents Albay province, has called for the urgent passage of proposals under comprehensive education reform agenda.
Salceda was reacting to 2019 data released by Department of Education-Bicol officials. The DepEd said 71,420 non-readers represent 4.4 percent of 1.8 million learners in Bicol, which is higher than the 1.5 percent survey-based literacy in Bicol. This was measured during July pretest.
Moreover, Salceda said this is happening after almost a decade of 4Ps which is conditioned on attendance rates.
“This can only occur if children don’t go to school because of hunger or the attendance rate is not properly recorded. This can also happen if the parents do not spend the 4P cash transfer on nutrition even though it includes 1 sack of rice per month – bringing up an empirical question for policy formulation or execution,” he said.
“Any one child who reaches the higher levels of elementary school without knowing how to read is already a cause for concern. Seventy thousand in one region alone is a crisis,” Salceda said.
Salceda, who is author of a series of education-related bills called the Comprehensive Education Reform Agenda, also said that he is “almost certain that when the other regions release their data, we will see similar issues.”
“PISA 2018, and now this. We should call the situation what it is: a national crisis that requires decisive national action,” Salceda said, reacting to the country’s poor performance in the PISA – the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment — which the DepEd joined for the first time, under Briones’s initiative, precisely to get a better assessment of Filipino students.
The results released recently had the Philippines scoring the lowest in reading comprehension and the second-lowest in mathematics and science.
“By participating in PISA, we will be able to establish our baseline in relation to global standards, and benchmark the effectiveness of our reforms moving forward. The PISA results, along with our own assessments and studies, will aid in policy formulation, planning, and programming,” the DepEd had said, on the release of the result.