The Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development will be expanded in 2024, opening opportunities to college students to earn while studying.
DSWD Undersecretary for Innovations Edu Punay, during the Program Review and Evaluation Workshop at the Greenhills Elan Hotel Modern in San Juan City, said that the program expansion in some areas outside the National Capital Region (NCR) next year is a result of the "successful implementation of the program."
"We are super proud of this project not just because of the result but even before the results came, the design itself, of the project, is very sought after. We haven't completed the pilot implementation yet but we are getting so many requests from the local government units for transfer. Ganon [kalaki] yung potential na nakita ng ating mga LGUs dito (The potential that our LGUs saw here is that significant)," Punay said.
He noted that the Department is also moving to institutionalize the Tara, Basa! tutoring program.
"Our allies in the House of Representatives will be moving to file a Tara, Basa! bill that will expand the implementation of this program nationwide," Punay said.
The results of the Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment presented by Department of Education Education Program Supervisor Maricar Bangit showed a significant decrease in the number of students classified as full refresher.
From the 17,193 students who were tagged as "full refresher" during the pre-test, only 6,978 student-beneficiaries of Tara, Basa! are now classified as full refresher after the pilot implementation.
"As reflected in the graph, each division has significantly decreased their number of students under the full refresher category. This is a clear indicator that the program improved learners under the said category," the DepEd official said.
Those with full refresher reading profiles are students who need to be retaught previous grade-level reading concepts and skills.
Based on the result of the Quick English Reading Assessment also conducted by DepEd, it was concluded that the Tara, Basa! tutoring program has "demonstrated a positive impact on the reading skills of students in the National Capital Region. Through targeted interventions and personalized instruction, students have shown improvement in their reading abilities."
The QERA result also showed that the program has not only improved students' reading skills but also increased their confidence and motivation to read.
The Tara, Basa! tutoring program is the reformatted educational assistance of the DSWD that creates an ecosystem of learning where college students are deployed as tutors to teach poor and non- or struggling readers in elementary and as Youth Development Workers to conduct "Nanay-Tatay" sessions.
The tutoring program launched its pilot implementation in the different cities in NCR on 2 August.
