The Department of Education and the Department of Social Welfare and Development launched Wednesday a program to help grade school students who are struggling to read.
In the “Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program,” college students will teach incoming Grade 2 students how to read.
This developed as the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Culture is set to approve for plenary consideration the substitute bill seeking to enhance the existing K-12 basic education program.
The measure is a substitute for House Bill 7893 authored by Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which seeks to amend the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.
The effectiveness of the Senior High School under the K-12 Program in terms of job readiness and college readiness of students was also raised during the congressional hearing.
“Eighty percent of our cohorts in 2018 graduates went to higher education, and then 10 percent of them got employed, and then the remaining percent are not in education, employment, and training,” DepEd Director Samuel Soliven III said.
The “Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program” was firmed up through a memorandum of agreement signed by DepEd Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio and DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian.
According to Gatchalian, three groups would benefit from the program: some 63,000 incoming Grade 2 students; their parents or guardians who will receive P235 per day by assisting their children with the reading sessions and other related activities; and about 6,000 third and fourth-year college students who will receive P570 per tutoring day as a form of cash for work.
The program will be tested in Metro Manila for 20 days from August 15 and may be extended depending on the feedback.
In her speech, Duterte-Carpio thanked those who made the program possible. She said this was one of the ways by which DepEd is fulfilling its promise to provide students with modern and quality education.
“I hope the program would bring positive change to our learners.
Humbly, I urge every Filipino, every family, every community, all sectors, government, and non-government institutions, to join us in the fight for our children and our future,” Duterte-Carpio said.