The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) distributed cash-for-work (CFW) to 432 college students in Metro Manila during the first simultaneous payouts for the “Tara, Basa!” tutoring program on Sept. 14.
Students from the City of Malabon University, Navotas Polytechnic College, Universidad de Manila, and Parañaque City College received P4,800 each for rendering their service as tutors and youth development workers.
The cash payment, which is based on the new daily minimum wage established by the Department of Labor and Employment, is equivalent to eight days of tutoring and leading module sessions at a daily rate of P610.
Tara, Basa! tutoring program is the DSWD’s reformatted educational assistance that provides college students from low-income families with short-term work and learning opportunities in exchange for tutoring services to struggling learners.
Under the tutoring program, the college student-beneficiaries were trained to conduct reading sessions for struggling and non-reader elementary learners and “nanay-tatay” module sessions for parents and guardians of grade school beneficiaries.
Tutors and youth development workers are 2nd- to 4th-year college students from Metro Manila’s select state universities and colleges and local government-run universities.
The college student-beneficiaries agreed to volunteer for 20 days to assist struggling or non-reader elementary learners, and to provide module sessions for parents and guardians of the learners.
Parents and guardians of struggling or non-reader elementary learners will also receive cash aid worth P235 per day for 20 days for attending the module sessions, assisting in preparing their children’s needs for learning and reading sessions, assisting them in their after-reading session assignments, and attending parent effectiveness sessions, among other related activities.
DSWD said the parent/guardian module session is one of the features of the program to strengthen the family and community support systems of elementary learners who are struggling to read or are non-readers.