CEBU CITY—At least 75 percent of Grade 3 students in Central Visayas still do not know how to read or have low reading comprehension.
Dr. Salustiano Jimenez, regional director of the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7), expressed worries over the report which was based on a mastery test the agency conducted for all students in the region last Dec. 12 to 14.
“I was really sad about the result because there’s a big percentage of students, especially those in kindergarten to Grade 3 that still could not read,” he said in a press conference on Tuesday, Dec. 27.
Jimenez attributed the poor reading performance of students to the more than two years of blended learning modalities at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That (home-based learning) was partly to blame in terms of reading performance. There was no actual pupil-to-teacher interaction during their Grade 1 and 2 years because of the pandemic,” he said.
To address the problem, Jimenez said teachers were instructed to focus on implementing a “learning recovery plan,” along with the basic education learning continuity plan, to restore the reading performance of Grade 3 pupils to pre-pandemic level.
He said Grade 1 and Grade 2 teachers should spend ample time teaching students how to read so that they would become better readers once they get to Grade 3.
With the full implementation of in-person classes, Jimenez said he’s confident that students can improve their reading skills.
According to World Bank estimates, learning poverty in the Philippines is at 90.9 percent as of June 2022. Learning poverty is the percentage of children aged 10 who cannot read or understand a simple story.
Jimenez hoped that concerned students will soon recover with the help of their parents and teachers.
The DepEd, he said, will also do its part to provide a space that is suitable for learning for students.
As of Dec. 27, however, at least 803 of 5,000 public school classrooms in Central Visayas were still undergoing repairs after they were damaged by Typhoon “Odette” (international name: Rai).
Odette, which devastated parts of the Visayas on Dec. 16, 2021, left P10 billion in damage to school buildings and instructional materials in the region.
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