DepEd: ‘Catch-up Fridays’ to address reading literacy crisis

ARTICLE: LOVELY CAMILLE ARROCENA | JANUARY 6, 2023

Students of Corazon Aquino Elementary School in Quezon City during a seat work activity as the academic year 2023-2024 began last August 29, 2023. | via Lovely Camille Arrocena

Reading is not just a hobby; it opens doors of opportunities for Filipino children, especially in a culture enriched with storybooks. Unfortunately, only 10% of children can read, based on the 2022 World Bank State of Learning Poverty report. This reality extends to many low-income countries, including the Philippines.

However, how can we ensure that the growing number of children become comprehensive readers in the years ahead? Could dedicating a day to reading help promote literacy and intellectual development among them?

How did it come to this?

The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic led the country's education system to shift to hybrid classes last November 2022 after the Department of Education (DepEd) prohibited the implementation of onsite classes. A 2021 Senate hearing also disclosed alarming reports of parents committing ‘academic dishonesty’ by either answering their children’s modules or hiring someone to do it.

In August 2023, during a Senate Committee hearing on Basic Education about the preparations for the school year 2023-2024, DepEd Assistant Secretary for Field Operation Francis Bringas stated a concerning shortage of 159,000 classrooms anticipated for the school year, posing a challenge in accommodating children returning to onsite learning.

In a separate hearing, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian also pointed out that only 1 out of 10 students continue their education upon reaching senior high school, recorded on DepEd’s historical participation data.

Fridays for reading

To combat illiteracy, ‘Catch-up Fridays’ will start in January 2024, as Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte announced during the National Reading Month’s culminating activity last November. It aims to focus not only on reading but also on exploring peace, health, and values education.

“We need one day where we will focus on bringing students up to speed on their lessons. We can’t just keep doing the same things, but nothing is changing or improving with our learners,” Duterte reiterated.

This program will assign Kindergarten to Grade 12 students to allocate their Fridays to selecting reading materials based on their interests. The initiative includes follow-ups such as writing essays, book reviews, and similar outputs.

Alongside the ‘Matatag’ Curriculum, there will also be a reduction in the number of subjects expected to be implemented in 2024.

According to the Bureau of Curriculum Development Director IV Jocelyn Andaya, 70% of the current curriculum is “decongested.” Duterte also underscored the necessity of compressed learning areas, addressing the challenges teachers and students face due to overloaded tasks.

What people say

Upon dedicating Fridays for reading, Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee suggests arranging learners depending on their reading abilities: slow readers, nonreaders, and literates.

“The literature around the world tells us that you can do learning recovery well if we teach at the right level [...] We need to have an assessment and a grouping that allows us to know who is good, who is not, who needs a lot of help,” Yee said.

Jeric Tindoy Olay, a language teacher from Southern Leyte, echoes this sentiment in a Rappler report last November, emphasizing that upon the enactment of the reading day, DepEd should prioritize “companionable” selections for the readers.

“If these criteria were considered, who knows, the program might also be instrumental for the development of the learners’ sense of nation and identity,” said Olay.

Meanwhile, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) questioned the pilot testing of the ‘Matatag’ curriculum that started last September 25 in 37 schools across seven regions nationwide.

ACT calls for a more “relevant and responsive curriculum,” saying that the implementation of Matatag is ‘premature,’ warning that it will only subject students and teachers to experimentation following a ‘problematic’ K-12 curriculum launched in 2012.

Promoting Reading Literacy

In a recently held Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) Circle last November, children and young-adult books are set to be written in or translated into their ‘mother tongue’ to boost reading literacy.

The World Vision Development Foundation also partnered with DepEd in launching the Brigada Pagbasa Programme in 2019 to ensure that no children will be left behind by aiding reading literacy among them. The program is an offshoot of Brigada Eskwela.

Whether it’s a designated day for reading or the collective commitments of the government and NGOs, all of these initiatives aim for a brighter future for generations to come. The urgency of development in collaborative solutions that have occurred over the years pushes forward to 100% literate Filipino children.