DepEd-Cordillera bares non-reader numbers
Credit to Author: ESTANISLAO ALBANO JR.| Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2019 16:14:47 +0000
LA TRIDINDAD, Benguet: The Department of Education (DepEd) regional office here unveiled the results of the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI), the DepEd’s reading assessment tool, showing the region had 301 non-readers in English and 305 in Filipino from Grades 4 to 6 in School Year 2018-2019.
Of the non-readers in English, 84 were Grade 6 pupils, 118 were Grade 5 and 99 were Grade 4.
The number of non-readers in Filipino by school divisions are as follows: Baguio City, 174; Mountain Province, 58; Benguet, 26; Kalinga, 26; Apayao, 20; Tabuk, one; and Abra, zero. There was no data for Ifugao.
Those identified as non-readers were among the 53,372 who took the post-test in English. Of the number, 9,090 were classified as frustration readers (from 14,682 in pre-test); 23,267 (from 19,781) were instructional readers; and 18,673 were independent readers (from 12,736).
Of the 39, 655 who took the Filipino reading test, there were 11,521 identified as frustration level readers (from 19,519 in the pre-test); 23,317 identified as instructional readers (from 21,985); and 22,156 (from 16,147) identified as independent readers.
The 2018 Phil-IRI Manual describes the independent reading level as the stage where “readers function on their own with almost perfect oral reading and excellent comprehension.”
Meanwhile, the instructional reading level refers to the stage where “readers profit the most from teacher-directed instruction in reading” and frustration reading level as the stage where “readers find reading materials so difficult that they cannot successfully respond to them.”
The 2018 Phil-IRI Manual does not carry the term “non-reader” and had done away with the “non-reader” column in the reading profile and report forms.
Previously, the Phil-IRI Manuals defined a non-reader as “a pupil who is unable to recognize and sound out letter-sound connections for single consonants” and their report forms contained a “non-reader” column.
But DepEd-Cordillera Regional Memorandum 70, series of 2019, which asked the school divisions to submit their consolidated Phil-IRI results for School Year 2018-2019, maintained the “non-reader” column in its report form.
The results of the recent Phil-IRI was included in the report on the status of basic education in the region presented by the DepEd-CAR during its executive committee meeting on November 4 in connection to the call of a group of concerned citizens for the Regional Development Council (RDC) to look into the quality of education in the region.
The group had specified the existence of non-readers in high school and the alleged negative effects of the Mother Tongue-based Multi-lingual Education (MTBMLE) on English proficiency as priority concerns to be scrutinized.
DepEd-CAR Policy, Planning and Research Division chief Pio Ecuan, who presented the report, said the office did not have any information if the non-readers were promoted or not.
The regional office also reported it had initiated the Project Assistance to Identified Development and Enhancement Needs of School or Project Maiden under which the divisions and schools have their banner programs addressing the weak reading skills among other learning deficiencies.
This reporter, who was invited to the meeting in his capacity as member of the group seeking the RDC probe, had commented that the problem on non-readers all boils down to the unwillingness of the DepEd to enforce its own standards, citing that under the K to 12 curriculum, reading in English is among the competencies for Grade 2.
Assistant Regional Director Florante Vergara, who headed the meeting, denied that the DepEd was passive in the implementation of education policies and laws, even as he disputed allegations that the K to 12 curriculum and the MTBMLE were failures, stating that both programs are products of research and benchmarking with developed countries.
He said the problem might be because of the resistance to the programs by some teachers “who are not committed to teach,” which redound to the low performance of children.
Human Resource Development Division chief Carmel Meris echoed Vergara, saying the unfavorable attitude of teachers toward the new programs was a reason they continuously train teachers to revive their commitment to the profession.
Meris added for proper understanding of the non-reader problem, the subject should “pass through research.”
Several committee members stressed that contrary to the impression of some people, the DepEd has no policy barring teachers from retaining pupils who have not learned the competencies required in the grade including reading.
They said what might be misconstrued by outsiders as a policy of passing everyone, including the underserving, is the prevailing policy where identified slow learners are provided with remedial tasks intended for them to be able cope and pass at the end of the term.
Quality Assurance Division chief Aida Payang said teachers were sometimes afraid to fail students, but “we have no policy prohibiting teachers from failing students.”
Explaining that in the promotional guidelines, students pass if they attain the competencies required in the grade, Payang said she could not find any legal basis for promoting learners even if they are unable to read.
Payang added that while it was sad that the region has non-readers, it was better off than other regions as far as that the Cordillera has been competing with the National Capital Region for the top spot in the National Achievement Test (NAT) in recent years.
Lawyer Sebastian Tayaban, Finance Division chief, said before failing a child, a teacher must have done his best for the pupil and likewise considered the possible effects of the decision on the child. He said when children are retained, it is more likely the teacher had not done what is required of him.
For his part, Administrative Officer Edgardo Alos revealed that some principals frown on failing students due to the effect on the performance rating of the school.
The committee defended the K to 12 and the MLBMLE from this reporter’s comment that the 32.10 plunge in the Grade 6 NAT score since the programs were introduced in 2013 is clear proof that the MTBMLE has failed attributing issues against the programs to the non-acceptance by some teachers.
Ecuan also said it was premature to conclude that the K to12 was a failure and that the right time to pass judgment on the program is in 2023 when the first cohort starting from Kindergarten would have graduated.
The committee said the successes of the MTBMLE were not documented, and there was a need to validate the negative allegations against the program. They also said more studies on the MTBMLE should be conducted.
Vergara called the sharp decrease in the score in the 2018 NAT a “national issue,” which is not related to the K to 12 program, explaining that since 2018, the exams were no longer content-based but shifted to testing 21st century learning.
Citing the claim in the curriculum guide of the MTBLE that mastery of the mother tongue facilitates the learning of other languages and redounds to better academic performance, this reporter had pointed out that since 2013 when the K to 12 and MTBMLE were introduced, Filipino and English performance fell by 19.94 and 28.01, respectively.
This reporter had further informed the committee that in the Cordillera, between 2007 to 2013, English performance in the Grade 6 NAT climbed by 5.29 and 4.79 in Filipino; but from 2013 to 2018, English lost 26.80 (with 9.91 points incurred in just in 2018) and in Filipino by 16.13.