Microsoft recently expanded capabilities in its Reading Progress tool to include Filipino. Microsoft’s Reading Progress is a free application built into Microsoft Teams and is powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support and track students’ reading fluency, specifically reading accuracy, speed, and pronunciation. The tool, which now includes the Filipino language, is now available to the 27 million students and 950,000 teachers within the Department of Education’s (DepEd) nationwide system. It works on all platforms, including Desktop, Mac, web, iOS, and Android.
The Reading Progress tool was designed to enable teachers to connect with students on an individual level and identify opportunities for differentiated instruction. With functions such as assignment review, teachers can collect valuable data and Education Insights dashboards that help visualize class and individual performance and growth. These innovations have empowered educators to deliver lessons in a more engaging way and track students’ progress. Reading Progress is now available to all DepEd regions across the Philippines, delivering critical reading skills, both online and in face-to-face environments.
Research shows that children learning in their mother tongue adopt a better understanding of the curriculum. Students need to develop a strong foundation in their mother language before effectively learning additional languages, according to DepEd. The new features in the Reading Progress tool and its availability to all public-school students and teachers will help in implementing DepEd’s Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) program.
A report in 2020 by the DepEd Region V found around 40,000-grade school students struggling to read after taking both Filipino and English tests. Divina Gracia Barrion Cuya, a Grade 1 Special Science class teacher in Tiwi Central School in Albay shares, "Constant practice in reading Filipino passages and in mother tongue will help my learners improve reading fluency." With the new features now available in the Reading Progress tool, teacher Divina is confident in improving her student’s Filipino reading skills.
Microsoft is working closely with DepEd to deploy and fully leverage the Reading Progress tool in schools across the country to support the education sector in delivering critical skills and preparing Filipino learners for the future.