LGU help vital in reading skills improvement among students

CEBU, Philippines - Local government units are expected to assist in the enhancement of proficiency in reading comprehension among elementary and high school students.

The Cebu Provincial Board, in a resolution, urges Local School Boards to submit proposals and programs to their respective LGUs.

PB member Juan Bolo, chairman of the committee on education, said that the program would enhance the proficiency of reading among students with the help of LGUs, the resolution said.

The resolution further said that the 2009 National Achievement Test has made a critical and alarming issue on the reading comprehension of our students where it shows lower score indicating only “near mastery level.”

It indicated as well that “mastery” is only at 14.4 percent among Grade 6 pupils and 1.1 percent among fourth-year high school students.

With these, it means “below-mastery scores” are at 85.6 percent among the pupils and 98.1 percent among graduating students.

The resolution quoted Dr. Yolanda Quijano, head of the Department of Education’s Bureau of Elementary Education, saying that in order to address the problem, students have to be trained at the earliest age to read well.

“This means access to a wide variety of quality books at their schools and a program that encourages reading because the surefire way to develop good reading comprehension is by making reading a habit,” the resolution said.

Local School Boards are tasked by law, under Republic Act 7160 Section 99, paragraph C to “serve as an advisory committee to the sanggunian concerned on educational matters such as, but not limited to, the uses of local appropriation for education,” the resolution also said.

Under the same law, Local School Boards have interplay function to the development of education and carry the responsibility to take care of the needs of public schools; as well as to determine the budgetary needs for the operation and maintenance of public schools.

With this development, members of the Provincial Board said that they should allocate money for the provisions of books needed to enhance reading comprehension. — Jose P. Sollano/MEEV   (FREEMAN NEWS)