**(Department of Social Welfare and Development/Tara, Basa! Facebook Page)**

To further empower students and enhance educational support, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Friday, Dec. 20 renewed its partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd) for the continuation of the success of the “Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program,” a key initiative aimed at improving reading skills among struggling elementary students.

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian and DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to ensure the continued implementation of the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program until 2028.

“From our point of view, we have always looked at it as a social welfare program—trying to help the poorest college students graduate out of college. But we want to make sure that we are already starting the transition from pure straight out dole out to something conditional and developmental,” Gatchalian said.

Through the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program, college students are trained and deployed as tutors to assist struggling readers in public elementary schools.

They also serve as youth development workers (YDWs), facilitating “nanay-tatay learning sessions” aimed at enhancing parental involvement in education.

In return for delivering 20 tutoring and learning sessions, the tutors and YDWs receive a cash-for-work stipend based on the prevailing regional minimum wage.

“This is probably going to be one of many collaborations with DepEd with the whole purpose of helping kids finish school, learning how to read, and at the same time transitioning from pure straight-out social welfare to something conditional and developmental. That is what our goal is—to ease into that culture of not mendicancy but rather nation-building,” Gatchalian said.

Under the MOA, the DSWD will lead in designing the program, developing guidelines, monitoring its implementation, and providing technical assistance during capability-building activities, community assemblies, and tutoring sessions.

It will also create essential materials, such as digital learning resources for parents, tutor guidebooks, learner workbooks, and teacher modules for YDWs and parents.

Meanwhile, the DepEd will endorse target learners based on results from the National Assessment on Reading Comprehension, assist in matching tutors with students, and provide logistical support, including the use of school facilities and resources.

“We are very grateful for this partnership with DSWD. Definitely, this will improve the delivery of services of learning and I think the collaboration between DSWD and DepEd will be very fruitful and productive for our children and young learners,” Angara said.

“I know this has been very successful. It was declared as a flagship program by Malacañang recently. We are very happy and fortunate to be part of it and we will do our best to make it succeed,” he added.

The Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program is a restructured educational assistance initiative under the DSWD and was officially declared a flagship program by the national government through Executive Order No. 76, signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Nov. 22.

This year, the program reached 120,359 beneficiaries, including college students, struggling and non-reading elementary learners, and parents.

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