NATION

DSWD eyes improved kids’ learning, reading skills

DT · Jun 20, 2025, 5:57 AM

ABOITIZ Foundation scholars (left) read a storybook to students of Tandang Sora Elementary School to help improve their reading and comprehension skills during the Brigada Eskwela ’25 event themed ‘Sama-sama para sa Bayang Bumabasa’ conducted by volunteers from the foundation and TSES in Tandang Sora, Quezon City on 7 June 2025. — PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN CARLO MAGALLON AND WJG FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) announced Thursday that it continues to support the learning process of young learners across the country by strengthening ties between social welfare and education-centric programs of the government.

Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao, who is also the DSWD’s spokesperson, said the constant challenge to uphold quality education is a shared responsibility of everyone in the government.

“As always stressed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., the government must not work in a silo. Dapat laging ‘as one’. Tayo sa DSWD, we are known for our social welfare

programs and our mandate in addressing poverty. But isa talaga sa lagi nating pinu-push in ending intergenerational poverty is the need to focus on children’s access to education,” Dumlao explained.

The Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program (TBTP), according to the DSWD spokesperson, is among the most recent innovations in the agency.

Launched in 2023, the TBTP is the reformatted educational assistance of the Department.

The DSWD’s TBTB is in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd) and aims at addressing the learning gaps among elementary learners in public schools.

For School Year 2025-2026, a total of 138,407 individuals composed of college students, incoming Grade 2 learners, and their parents or guardians are expected to benefit from the tutoring program.

“Basically, the program engages college students from low-income backgrounds. We train them to become youth development workers and tutors. Yung mga tutors namin, they conduct tutoring sessions to enhance the literacy skills of grade school learners who are either struggling or non-readers. Our YDWs, on the other hand facilitate Nanay-Tatay teacher sessions for the parents of these students,” Dumlao said.

YDWs engage parents in Nanay-Tatay sessions that aim to expound on their role in ensuring that the progress their children make with tutoring sessions are sustained at home.

Dumlao said the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4ps), the DSWD’s flagship poverty-alleviation program, puts a premium on keeping children in school, particularly those belonging to poor households as defined by the Philippine Statistics Authority.