ILOILO – What steps are being taken to help this province’s estimated 42,000 “frustration level” readers from kindergarten to high school?
Schools are holding remedial reading classes, according to the Schools Division of Iloilo but stressed that “it takes a village to educate a child.”
One of the flagship programs that the Schools Division has implemented is the Beyond Horizons for Literacy (BHL) which developed “contextualized and levelized” instructional materials in reading and numeracy that serve as supplementary materials in conducting remedial classes for learners.
According to the Schools Division of Iloilo, BHL was able to achieve 91.79 percent improvement in English reading proficiency, 92.04 percent in Filipino and 92.29 percent in numeracy among the beneficiary learners.
“All schools districts were directed to implement BHL beginning school year 2019-2020 in partnership with their respective local government units,” read part of a statement from the Schools Division of Iloilo.
There are 987 public elementary schools and 179 public secondary schools in the province.
The Schools Division of Iloilo assured the Ilonggos it “recognizes the urgency of addressing gaps and issues in providing and attaining quality basic education in the Province of Iloilo.”
But since “it takes a village to educate a child”, it urged Ilonggos to “be actively involved, to cooperate and collaborate in advancing the quality of basic education” in Iloilo.
“Frustration level” readers can recognize some words but they lack comprehension, according to Dr. Roel Bermejo, superintendent of the Iloilo Schools Division.
The goal of the Schools Division is to develop them into “independent level” readers.
The Schools Division clarified, however, that the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) from which the 42,000 learners were gauged as “frustration level” readers is not the sole assessment tool that provides the holistic reading performance of the students.
“It only provides an approximation of the students’ abilities and could be used in combination with other reliable tools of assessment,” it stressed.
The Phil-IRI, an initiative of the Bureau of Learning Delivery of DepEd, is an informal reading inventory composed of graded passages designed to determine the individual student’s performance in oral reading, silent reading and listening comprehension in both English and Filipino.
These three types of assessments aim to find the student’s independent, instructional and frustration levels. The data from these measures could be used to design or adjust classroom, small group or individualized instruction to fit the students’ needs and abilities.
Sangguniang Panlalawigan member Jason Gonzales said Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. met with Bermejo and asked for the breakdown of the 42 000 frustrated level readers.
Defensor wanted to know from which towns these readers are to introduce appropriate interventions, said Gonzales, chairperson of the Regional Education Council.
The Regional Education Council itself will also make use of the data to design interventions, said Gonzales.
“Our intervention will be systematic and large scale,” he said.
The Regional Education Council is planning to set a Regional Education Summit in March.
Gonzales said it will help local chief executives address concerns on education.
Local chief executives need to be aware of the participation rate of learners in schools; the cohort survival rate or the rate of learners entering the first grade that can make it into the sixth grade; the activation of school governing council; and the establishment of expanded school board which will be needed for budgetary concerns; and the literacy rate, among others, said Gonzales.
According to Bermejo, majority of the frustration level readers in Iloilo were between Grade 1 and Grade 6.
There were many factors why this was so, he stressed.
Some of these learners may be special children with special needs but enrolled in regular classes.
The family’s socioeconomic status may also be a factor, said Bermejo. Learners from poor families were likely to miss classes more often to help their parents make a living.
Another factor could be the parents’ lack of interest in how their children were faring in school, said Bermejo./PN