DSWD taps 18,000 coeds for gov’t tutoring program
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has tapped around 18,000 college students to become mentors and youth development workers for the third year.
According to the DSWD, a total of 18,055 college students will undergo a five-day training program for its cash-for-work tutoring program, called “Tara, Basa!” tutoring program next month.
Other topics to be discussed in the mentor training sessions are basic gender and cultural sensitivity, financial literacy and an “in-depth orientation” on their tasks as tutors and youth development workers.
“We are preparing these students not just to teach, but to become holistic support systems for both children and parents,” DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao said in a statement.
A guidebook for tutors and a workbook for learners will also be provided to the program participants to serve as their reference materials in the sessions.
These were developed by the DSWD with the Ateneo Center for Educational Development and the Department of Education.
The tutors and youth development workers, mostly education majors in college, will receive compensation based on the prevailing regional daily minimum wage rate over the 20-day learning session.
Tutors will guide elementary students having difficulties in reading, while the youth development workers will hold “Nanay-Tatay teacher sessions” with the parents or guardians of the students to espouse “positive parenting” and other related topics such as Filipino family dynamics and understanding oneself as a parent.
One of the tutors in the program, third-year college student Jomel Sabalboro from Albay, said that his role goes beyond teaching, as it is important to also “create meaningful learning experiences tailored to the needs of the struggling learners.”
Teachers’ training, too
“I thought my role was simply to teach struggling readers using printed materials, like storybooks. However, through the sessions, I realized that my responsibilities go far beyond that,” he said in the DSWD statement.
For this year, the program, deemed supplementary learning sessions, was further expanded to a total of 12 regions, namely Metro Manila and the regions of Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Soccsksargen and Caraga.
It had a pilot run in Metro Manila when it was launched in 2023, before it was introduced to six other regions.
