DepEd to launch project on reading

The Bureau of Elementary Education of the Department of Education in cooperation with the International Scholastic Inc. will launch the "National Read-A-Thon Project' on July 14.

The project will be launched to encourage Grades I to VI pupils to read at least three books a year through the nationwide reading marathon in support of DepEd's "Every Child a Reader Program."

The project is aimed at developing love for reading among elementary pupils and fostering a reading culture in all schools and communities.

On July 14, the teachers and pupils are requested to read for 30 minutes for the activity's launching which will start at 2:00 pm.

Pre-test results of the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory showed that at least 78 percent of pupils from 68 public schools in Cebu City are poor English readers.

Over 72,751 pupils from Grades II to VI took the pre-test and 57,264 of them got poor ratings. About 54,787 of the pupils are classified as frustration-level readers while 2,531 are considered non-readers.

Frustration-level readers are those who can read English but are poor in comprehension while non-readers are those who could not read English at all, said Flordeliza Sambrano, the city schools coordinator of the English curriculum.

The highest number of frustration-level readers comes from Grade III with 12,014, followed by Grade IV with 11,304, Grade II (10,751), Grade V (10,641) and Grade VI (10,027).

The most non-readers belong to Grade II with 1,197, followed by Grade III with 620, Grade IV (310), Grade VI (209) and Grade V (195). - Jasmin R. Uy