As a senior high school teacher, it pains me to accept the reality that, at their age, many SHS students can't write. Of course, common reasons are associated with a lack of knowledge of sentence-level rules, which could have been learned in their previous years, especially in elementary. I suspect it's the "messy" competencies that have obscured the view for teachers to really hit the targets.
I wish the newly conceived MATATAG curriculum would change the course. Another reason that carries weight is that these students don't read. Reading precedes writing. This is why, from the very start, these students should have been fed with a good number of stories at the grade school level.
Issues such as learners' inability to read, write, and comprehend are no longer surprising, for these realities are slapping us through a myriad of research findings and the results of international assessments.
Now, the education department has to implement policies but be mindful of half-baked ones, to address what needs to be addressed pronto. And they need to take into account that just because it sounds revolutionary, it also works as imagined.
Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio's latest policy, though still verbal, offers new hope to the learning crisis that has since crawled like metastasis to the core of the country's educational system.
In the proposed policy, one day is allotted for the literacy program — this has never been observed in the department's history. As written on the Department's website, Philippine public schools will allot a free day (every Friday) for learners to read. The goal is to cultivate a reading habit.
Though the policy on paper is yet to be released, I hope this does not turn out to be half-baked and curated hastily. The education department said that they would prepare age-appropriate materials. If I were to be asked, they have to choose companionable selections. Readability must be a chief criterion. And in choosing short stories, they have to put a premium on works by local or regional writers. Works rich in local color, vernacular expressions, and themes that reflect local values and practices establish connections, thereby facilitating a quick understanding of the text that the learners have read. If these criteria were considered, who knows, the program might also be instrumental in developing the learners' sense of nation and identity.
But the chief essence of the program, which is to raise a reader, will not be felt if the grassroots-level implementors don't read. I'm referring to our teachers. The problem arises when teachers assign reading tasks, but they themselves haven't done close reading, or worse, haven't fully grasped the meaning of the text they have given.
While waiting for the specifics, which will be released in December, I also keep my hopes high that DepEd will mention and revitalize the time-honored home reading activity to supplement the "Catch-up Fridays" program.
The Department of Education is set to implement the program by January next year. So, if we want to develop a love for reading among our young learners, giving a new life to home reading activities is an option.
(Jeric Olay is a 27-year-old educator and poet. He teaches language and literature at Ichon National High School in Macrohon, Southern Leyte.)