Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday, November 27 urged the government to launch more programs and interventions aimed at improving students’ proficiency in reading.
Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, made the call as the nation commemorates National Book Week from Nov. 24 to 30.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the senator said international large-scale assessments show that the country’s learners are already struggling to meet the minimum required proficiency in Reading.
This was reflected in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) where the Philippines scored lowest in Reading out of 79 countries that participated, he recalled.
Results of the PISA further show that only one out five Filipino learners aged 15 achieved at least the minimum proficiency level in Overall Reading Literacy.
“Ang pagbabasa ay isa sa mga pundasyon na dapat nating pagtibayin sa ating mga kabataan at mag-aaral. Ngayon natin higit na kinakailangang tutukan ang kanilang pagbabasa lalo na’t pinalala ng pandemya ang problema sa ating sektor ng edukasyon (Reading is one of the foundations that we must strengthen in our youth and students. Now we need to focus more on their reading especially since the pandemic has worsened the problem in our education sector),” Gatchalian said.
He also said results of the 2019 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) also show that only 10 percet of the country’s Grade 5 learners achieved the minimum proficiency at the end of primary education.
Gatchalian also pointed out the lack of face-to-face classes during the pandemic resulted in learning loss. The World Bank also estimated that as of June 2022, learning poverty in the Philippines is at 90.9 percent.
The lawmaker earlier filed Senate Bill No. 150 or the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Act, which seeks to institute a nationwide learning recovery program that will include well-systematized tutorial sessions and well-designed remediation plans.
The proposed program will also prioritize Reading to develop the critical and analytical thinking skills of learners.
“Given the grimmer outlook on the effects of the pandemic school closures, as evidenced by the latest data available, the ARAL Program remains to be my proposed national core strategy at this opportune time to allow learners to catch up with the rest ofthe world despite their learning loss,” Gatchalian said in the explanatory note of his bill.
Gatchalian is also proposing to officially declare the month of November as the National Reading Month, under Senate Bill No. 475 to inculcate a culture of reading among basic education learners.