MAKING LEARNERS PROFICIENT READERS

JEAN DULATRE MIRO

To make every learner a proficient reader, schools across the country are tasked to help learners develop their reading skills.

With this, the Department of Education (DepEd) is continuously fulfilling its mandate to produce productive and responsible citizens equipped with essential competencies and skills for lifelong learning.

But are these initiatives enough based on the recent results of national assessments for student learning?

The overall results of the national assessments reveal that there are still many early grade learners struggling to meet the learning standards in early language, literacy and numeracy.

Low achievement levels in English, Math, and Science appear to be caused by gaps in learners' reading comprehension. This means that there are many low performing learners who could not comprehend (read and understand) Math and Science word problems that are written in English. Hence, they were unable to demonstrate their knowledge in these content areas.

Elementary and high school learners are still deficient in literacy skills both in languages and content areas, more so in reading.

In order to address the aforementioned gaps, there is a need to strengthen the reading proficiency of every learner and to nurture a culture of reading which is a requisite skill in all content areas.

To attain this goal, DepEd should equip learners with reading skills to make them proficient and independent readers in their grade level; Capacitate teachers to become effective reading teachers; and Nurture a culture of reading in schools, communities, and various levels of governance in DepEd-central office (CO), regional offices (ROs), and schools division offices (SDOs).

-oOoThe author is a Teacher I at Don Antonio Lee Chi Uan Integrated School