The Department of Social Welfare and Development announced on Sunday that the agency offers Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program for college students in exchange for providing educational assistance to grade school learners. 

“We will provide them with financial assistance, but this will be under the cash-for-work modality.

"They will do something in exchange for the educational assistance. What they will do is teach grade school learners who are struggling or who do not yet know how to read,” DSWD Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said in DZBB radio session.

The official revealed that the agency previously provided direct cash assistance to college students, before the program was later recalibrated upon the assumption of Secretary Rex Gatchalian, introducing conditions in the delivery of the assistance. 

The DSWD reported that the program has an annual target of 130,000 beneficiaries, including college students, grade school learners, and parents and guardians. 

“Every year, since 2023, that has been our target and we have been able to serve them,” Dumlao said.

The agency spokesperson, however, stressed that the DSWD is pushing for the institutionalization of the “Tara, Basa Tutoring Program” to ensure dedicated funding for it. 

Dumlao said that the DSWD is identifying communities with high reading illiteracy rates and low-income families with college students enrolled in local state colleges and universities. 

“More than the financial assistance they are receiving, what is most important that is being inculcated is the value of education,” she pointed out. 

The DSWD official said the 20-day tutorial and parenting sessions under the program usually run from May to September, depending on the schedule chosen by the beneficiaries.