DepEd | up to 70,000 pupils in Bicol can't read

According to research conducted in 2019, there are at least 70,000 elementary pupils in Bicol are not able to read in Filipino and English. Out of the 70,000, 18, 143 pupils are in Grades 3 to 6, said Grace Rabelas, the education supervisor for DepEd Bicol for curriculum and learning management. The rest are from Grade 1 and 2.

The information originated from the pretests conducted by the Philippine Informal Read Inventory (Phil-IRI). The test was held from July to August 2019.

The findings of the study are proof that the Philippines is in the lower ranks in the category of reading among other 79 countries as announced by the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa).

Rabelas revealed that DepEd had conversed with the regional monitoring evaluation and adjustment division to devise a basis for the determination of the reading abilities of pupils belonging to the lower levels of education. Also, they were asked to come up
with tools to arrive at more accurate results.
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Phil-IRI is an initiative of DePEd’s Bureau of Elementary Education. It is an informal reading inventory that includes graded passages to help identify a student’s abilities in silent reading, oral reading, and listening comprehension.

It is centered on DepEd’s ‘Every Child a Reader Program’ campaign. IT aims to transform Filipino children to proficiently communicate both in the English and the Filipino language through effective instructions in reading.