Reading
Last week’s announcement that college students who volunteer as either Grade 1 reading tutors or as youth development workers can earn P570 a day under an education assistance program is of interest. This is a joint venture between the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). The respective secretaries, Sara Duterte and Rex Gatchalian signed a memorandum of understanding a week ago.
It is an interesting activity and I hope it is successful.
The details are that the volunteer teachers will help develop the reading skills of 63,000 Grade 1 students from 490 elementary schools in Manila. It is reported that each tutor will be assigned to 10 pupils for two hours a day for 20 days. Much will depend on the personality of the tutors. What is needed are college students who are sufficiently positive and extrovert to persuade young students to participate.
It is reported that at the end of the 20-day period, DepEd will conduct a test to establish whether the Grade 1 students have made progress. It sounds like a tall order, but I hope it works. My own experience with family members is that more elapsed time is needed before there is substantial reading proficiency.
DepEd tells us that parents and guardians can also attend the sessions. Hopefully, this will help the young readers to be more relaxed and confident, so that progress can be made.
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Alternative Learning Systems (ALS)
Former DepEd Secretary, Dr Leonor Briones initiated the ALS scheme. The idea was to give students who, for one reason or another, did not achieve the success in their schooling that in retrospect they hoped for. ALS, therefore, was a forum for ‘second chances’. Some students now mainly in the 20-30 age group are attending ALS classes. We wish them every success. Feedback I have received suggest that the drop-out rate has been high. This, according to some students, are that not all teachers are successful at motivating young adults. Allegations of teachers being sarcastic to students are made. If true, then these allegations are extremely worrying. They also make one wonder whether there are similar problems in high school education. If so, this may help us understand why our results from 15-year-old students are not globally competitive.
We should have a better understanding of what goes on in our high school classrooms./PN
