The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that 70k elementary student cannot read and write both

in English and Filipino in the Bicol Region. In this number, 18,143 were grade 3-6 and the rest
were grades 1 to 2 according to the data released by Grace Rabelas, education supervisor for
curriculum and learning management division of DepEd Bicol, it was based on the results of
pretest administered by Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) between July and
August of 2019.

I take stand with this report and I believe that we are dealing with this crisis until now. I’m not
solely blaming the teachers for this problem, there are lots of factor that can affect the reading
and writing comprehension of the students and I think calling the students as “non-readers” is
unfair and demerits the effort of the teachers and students that are involved. Malnutrition was
cited in the article as one of the major factors that affect the reading comprehension of the
student and I think it is the main culprit of this problem.

1. Why do you think there are high school students who reached high school but are not
able to read according to their reading comprehension age—reading which is fundamental
and basic learning (literacy) skill? In other words, who/what should be held accountable
for this?

2. What can you say about the teaching strategies of the teachers in the documentary, do
you think they are appropriate and ‘enough’? Explain.

3. If you were in the shoes of the immediate supervisors of these teachers, what
intervention would you do? Suggest 3 concrete teaching strategies you can advice your
teachers to help them assist their students achieve their reading comprehension level in
high school. What one school policy would you propose to improve your students’ reading
comprehension?