IN a bid to achieve a marked improvement among learners, schools started to implement “Catch up Fridays” on Friday, January 12, with a focus on “Drop Everything and Read” (DEAR), the Department of Education (DepEd) said.
According to DepEd’s Curriculum and Teaching Strand, in the schools that they have visited, students were “reading books they brought, borrowed from classmates, provided by schools from libraries or library hubs, or provided by local government units (LGU).”
“We saw a variety of reading materials, and strategies used by teachers to engage students in reading. We saw happy and engaged students and teachers,” the Curriculum and Teaching Strand said.
This was implemented in public schools only, “but private schools can adopt.”
During the culmination of the National Reading Month Celebration at the Esteban Abada Elementary School in Quezon City last year, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte said students from kindergarten to Grade 12 will spend time to read books and other reading materials based on their interests during the catch-up Fridays.
The DepEd chief added the teachers would task them to write essays, analysis and reviews of the books and other materials out of the books they have read.
She added that the program is also part of the learning recovery plan of DepEd to enable students to catch up and improve their comprehension due to the learning gap induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, which physically closed schools in the country.
Likewise, she said, the program is part of the overall Matatag Agenda of the DepEd to improve the quality of basic education in the country and will last until the end of the Marcos administration in 2028.