LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu—Seventy-five percent of Grade 3 learners in Central Visayas have poor performance in reading.
This was confirmed by Dr. Salustiano Jimenez, regional director of the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7).
Jimenez said that this data is based on the survey the agency conducted.
“Makaguol ang result no kay dako gyud kaayo ang porsyento sa mga bata, especially those in K-3 stage (kinder to Grade 3) nga dili pa gyud tawn ka basa,” he said.
Jimenez said that the implementation of the online and modular classes during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 to 2022 contributed to the decline of the students’ performance.
With this, Jimenez said that they are intensifying the implementation of their Basic Learning Recovery Plans, wherein teachers are ordered to focus on teaching their Grade 1 and Grade 2 pupils how to read so that they would better readers once they get to the Grade 3 level.
“This year, this school year 2023, is the school year nga atoa gyung paningkamutan, nagtinguha ang atoang mga division offices sa schools on how we recover our losses. And then we will continue that in the coming years sa atoang learing recovery plans,” he added.
Jimenez added that with the full implementation of the face-to-face classes, he is confident that the learners can recover from these losses.
“We have these in-person classes, I’m happy to announce that 100 percent of our schools have implemented these full in-person classes,” he said.
Based on World Bank estimates, learning poverty in the Philippines is at 90.9 percent as of June 2022. Learning poverty is defined as the percentage of children aged 10 who cannot read or understand a simple story.