Proliferation of nonreaders traced to non-implementation of crucial reading policy

In 2006, then Education Secretary Jesli Lapus already saw the writing on the wall on the reading abilities of Filipino schoolchildren. He wrote in the proposed Department of Education (DepEd) fiscal year 2007 budget presentation that the pre-test of the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory for school year 2004-2005 showed 1.67 percent of Grade 3 pupils were nonreaders, 52 percent were frustration level readers with only 29.52 percent, and 16.6 percent at the instructional and independent reading levels, respectively. “Poor reading skills of pupils affect learning in all subject areas,” he had warned.In the same document (See “Education For All: A Functionally-Literate Philippines!”), Lapus prescribed the following remedy for the problem: “Focus on reading, esp. in Grades 1-3 to build foundation skills for learning how to learn; scale up Every Child a Reader Program (Ecarp); implement policy of ‘no promotion beyond Grade 3 for non-readers.’”

Apparently, Lapus was unaware that Ecarp was the direct cause of the unprecedented emergence of nonreaders in Grade 3. With its “no promotion beyond Grade 3 for nonreaders” policy (DepEd Memorandum No. 324, series of 2004), the Ecarp effectively superseded the time-honored “No Read, No Move” policy under which no Grade 1 pupil could be promoted to Grade 2 unless he could read. While the old policy was in place, there were no nonreaders in Grade 2 but apparently Lapus did not know this, thus, he ironically recommended the strict enforcement of the new policy which had caused nonreaders to pop up in Grade 3.In fairness to Lapus, even if vastly weaker than the “No Read, No Move” policy, the new policy could have fended off the reading crisis because cases of illiteracy would have been confined only to the first three grades. The country’s learning poverty or the portion of 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand simple texts would also be significantly lesser than the current 90.9 percent as 10-year-olds are in either Grade 4 or Grade 5 and, therefore, are already readers.

But since the DepEd did not enforce and is not enforcing the Ecarp reading deadline, unlike in 2006 when Lapus sounded the alarm, the proliferation of nonreaders is no longer limited to Grade 3 but has escalated to high school.

The following studies, conducted by DepEd teachers under the auspices of the agency, prove the existence of nonreaders in high school:

“Team Teaching and Morphological Awareness: Its Impact on the Reading Enhancement and Vocabulary Acquisition of Grade 7 Non-readers in the Quinapondan NHS”

“The Children Who Were Left Behind: Lived Experiences of High School Non-readers”

Research on the “Project READ (Reading Enhancement and Development)” reading program of the Cabuyao Integrated National High School in Cabuyao City, Laguna. The purpose of “Project READ” is “to lessen, if not totally eradicate the number of identified nonreaders and struggling readers among Grade 7 students.”

Research on “D’ CURE (Devoting Care to Uplift Reading Efficiency)” reading program of the Luis Y. Ferrer Jr. West National High School in General Trias City, Cavite. The researchers wrote that the program begins with a pre-need assessment in reading for incoming Grade 7 students to detect the approximate number of nonreaders among them.

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The first two studies were funded under the 2020 Basic Education Research Fund of DepEd-Region VIII and the last two were included in the Book of Abstracts of the Calabarzon English Language Conference held by the DepEd-Region IV-A in 2021.

Considering the fact that the reading crisis would have been avoided had the DepEd been enforcing its “no promotion beyond Grade 3 for nonreaders” policy, Lapus and successors Armin Luistro, Leonor Briones, and Sara Duterte should be called to explain why they refused to implement the policy. The issuance by DepEd-Cabuyao City of Division Memorandum No. 537, s. 2023, reiterating the “No Read, No Pass Policy” barring the promotion of nonreaders on Sept. 15, 2023, proves that neither is Duterte enforcing the crucial reading policy.

Estanislao C. Albano Jr., casigayan@yahoo.com