With help from USAID, students improve their reading skills
After the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) concluded its Basa Pilipinas project, education officials reported significant improvements in the pupils’ reading comprehension.
Because of the results, the Department of Education (DepEd) will institutionalize the project so public school pupils will continue to benefit from it.
In January 2013, the USAID partnered with DepEd to implement Basa Pilipinas in 3,000 public elementary schools in Cebu province, Mandaue City and six other provinces and cities to improve the pupils’ reading skills.
Over 1.8 million Filipino learners from kindergarten to grade three benefited from the project and 19,000 school teachers were trained and provided with nine million teaching guides, storybooks and other educational materials.
The P1.9-billion project ran for five years.
The USAID showed the program’s evaluation results yesterday and revealed that grade two learners improved their reading comprehension from 28 percent to 42 percent. Student’s fluency also increased by an additional nine words per minute.
School officials said their students can now comprehend complicated words and phrases and perform sequencing of events. Their reading and delivery also improved now that they have better access to quality reading materials.
“Ang comprehension skills sa mga bata ni level up gyud tungod sa varied activities,” said Roselyn Narciso, a grade one teacher of Cordova Central School.
A grade three pupil, Julianne Margarette Pogoy, said she can now comprehend any story she reads whether it is written in English, Tagalog or Bisaya.
After five years of work, USAID handed over the Basa Pilipinas Project to DepEd, including the story books, educational toys and other teaching tools.
“None of these achievements would have been possible without your (teachers and students) commitment to promote lifelong learning and advance, inclusive and quality education for all,” Brian Levey, the director of USAID Philippines, said.
As they signed the pledge of commitment with USAID, the schools division superintendents expressed their gratitude and shared plans on how to sustain the program to deepen the literacy of Filipino learners.