Grade 3 non-readers drop to 2,000 from 65,000

The number of Grade 3 pupils who could not read letters has dropped to around 2,000 this year from 65,000 last year, the Department of Education (DepEd) reported yesterday.

- BELLA CARIASO

In an interview over dzMM, DepEd officer-in-charge Undersecretary for operations Malcolm Garma attributed the decrease to the department's targeted remediation programs centered on basic literacy.

"Last term, we had around 65,000 Grade 3 (students) who cannot read letters. So what we did is to do some remediation programs. And fortunately, after the remediation program that we have done, around less than 2,000 of students who cannot still read letters. They are now in Grade 4," he said.

Garma underscored the importance of strengthening foundational literacy skills among learners in the early grades to address long-term learning challenges.

"We saw that the higher grades cannot comprehend if the learners cannot follow even the basic literacy... so what we are focusing on right now is basic literacy so that we can develop functional literacy which will include already comprehension," he added.