Almost 50,000 students from Grades 1 to 3 in Metro Manila find it hard to read, a survey and assessment the Department of Education made in the National Capital Region revealed.
According to the survey the DepEd-NCR presented on Tuesday, 49,636 learners are classified as needing a “total full refresher” out of over 384,000 students from Grades 1 to 3 that took the comprehensive rapid literary assessment test before the current school year.
“We continue to look for the non-numerates, non-literates in all of our schools,” DepEd-NCR Director Wilfredo Cabral said, adding that schools already have a learning recovery and continuity plan in place.
Schools also have the LOG IN Plus framework, which stands for “loss, gaps, and gains in basic education,” apart from the good practices executed during the peak of distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The regional education office also assured that it is ready for the mandated full in-person classes come November, despite the prevailing shortage of classrooms across NCR.
“We are saying that we have problems on shortage in classrooms, not necessarily in the absence of that pre-pandemic stage, but because there are schools undergoing retrofitting and major repair,” Cabral said.
Some of those schools, he said, will be completely repaired by November, but probably beyond the DepEd deadline of November 2, he said.
“But, just the same, within the year, all of us can go to full in-person classes,” Cabral added.
Currently headed by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio, DepEd ordered the resumption of full face-to-face classes in all schools by November 2 to make up for the learning gaps caused by the two years of remote learning owing to the pandemic.
DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa also said the department was prioritizing the review of the country’s K-to-12 program, particularly its foundational and functional literacy aspects.