THE IMPACT OF OPLAN TUTOK BASA PROGRAM AMONG

GRADE ONE PUPILS IN A SAMPLED

PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

By: ABIGAEL C. BERTOS

Reading difficulties arise not only in English but also in Filipino. As a matter

of fact, in 2018, with the use of MSIAO, the OPLAN TUTOK BASA conducted

reading assessment in Payatas B Elementary School and found out that there are

seventy-two (72) Grade One pupils who cannot read in Filipino. These pupils

underwent intensive reading remediation program which is the “OPLAN TUTOK

BASA”. After undergoing on the said program, it was found that: the objectives

of Oplan Tutok Basa ensures the firm implementation of the program for the

development of non-readers assuring that every beneficiary will develop their

reading level; rooms for the program are provided and the school library is very

much equipped with reading materials. As for intervention for reading session,

the proponent ensures that pre-assessment and post-assessment tests were

conducted; the schedule for reading sessions everyday was strictly observed by

the reading or OTB teachers; All beneficiaries of the program were categorized

as non-readers before the Oplan Tutok Basa started. It was based on the pre-

assessment test conducted on the second week of June 2018, before the

program started. Hence, after attending OTB, beneficiaries were able to read

phrases, sentences and paragraphs. However, there remained one beneficiary

who is still not able to read at all. After the conduct of Oplan Tutok Basa, the

reading performance of majority of the pupils was improved; On the perception

of the teachers on the reading performance of the OTB recipients, they believed

that pupils were able to recognize the letters, distinguished the lower and upper

cases of the letters, and produce sounds of the letters of the alphabet.

From the findings, the researcher came up with the following

recommendations: for the beneficiaries of the program to cooperate with their

reading teachers by doing all the tasks assigned to them especially those that

need parents’ attention in aiding in improving their reading skills through follow-

ups at home; For the reading teachers to consider that literacy teaching needs

be broad and balanced, focus on a particular area of literacy difficulty- for

example, word reading, sight vocabulary or comprehension strategies, collate a

list of reading intervention strategies which can be used in teaching non-readers;

For the teachers to implement OTB with comprehensive planning of

implementation and should incorporate strategies to directly hit the target

objectives and goals, and make reading evaluation a routenary activity to

monitor and evaluate the reading skills of the learners and conduct intervention

when it is deemed necessary; For the parents to be involved in monitoring the

study progress of their children; For School Administrators to evaluate and

monitor reading intervention programs adapted and initiated by the school to

ensure the proper implementation and success of the programs, extend

whatever support it needs to assure the quality services the program will provide

to its recipients, mandate reading coordinators to develop deeper insight in

managing and supporting the reading intervention program of primary pupils

and monitor the implementation of the new strategies in teaching reading,

survey, validate and determine the effectiveness of the implementation of the

Oplan Tutok Basa in other schools within the district to gain a much wider

perspective and environment for a consolidated plan for better implementation.