MANILA: Some 68,542 struggling and non-reader elementary learners, college students and parents have benefitted from the pilot implementation of the “Tara, Basa!” (Come on, let’s read!) Tutoring Program, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said on Tuesday.
‘After 20 reading and nanay-tatay (mother-father) sessions, the DSWD, through the help of our trained college students, has assisted a total of 31,234 struggling and non-reader elementary learners and another 31,207 parents and guardians,’ DSWD Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Irene Dumlao said in a statement.
Through the program, elementary students underwent reading sessions, while their parents and guardians were capacitated to become “nanay-tatay” teachers based on the design of the DSWD’s tutoring program.
Parents and guardians received cash aid worth PHP235 per day for 20 days by helping prepare materials for the learning and reading sessions, assisting learners in their after-reading session assignments, and attendin
g parent effectiveness sessions, among other related activities.
On the other hand, Dumlao, the DSWD’s data privacy officer and co-spokesperson, said the tutoring program also served some 6,101 college students from the second to fourth year level from select state universities and colleges (SUCs), as well as local government-run universities in Metro Manila.
These students, who belong to low-income families, were trained to become tutors and youth development workers (YDWs).
The student-tutors held reading sessions for struggling and non-reader elementary learners, while the YDWs conducted nanay-tatay sessions for parents and guardians.
In exchange for rendering tutoring and learning sessions, tutors and YDWS received cash-for-work (CFW) amounting to PHP610 per session.
Due to the program’s success, Dumlao said the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program will be expanded outside the National Capital Region in 2024.
‘With the remarkable results of the Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA) and Quick Englis
h Reading Assessment (QERA) conducted by the Department of Education (DepEd) that showed improvement in children’s reading abilities, the DSWD will bring the tutoring program in some cities and provinces outside Metro Manila,’ she said.
The Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program is the reformatted educational assistance of the DSWD that creates an ecosystem of learning wherein college students will be capacitated and deployed as tutors to teach poor and non or struggling readers in elementary, and as youth development workers to conduct nanay-tatay sessions.
Source: Philippines News Agency