The school’s principal, Portia Pereña, first brought up the idea last year while discussing another Caltex project in their school community in the sixth district of Manila. She was alarmed by the high percentage of non-readers in public schools as well as the dearth of teachers to address that problem. Pereña also created the metrics for educating both non-reader pupils and non-teacher mentors and, together with Master Teacher 1 Lolita Loto, conducted a one-day training course on the correct way of teaching non-readers as preparation for the mentoring.
The Caltex Mentor Program drew 30 volunteers from the Caltex operations in the Makati head office, the Pandacan Terminal, and the Batangas Refinery to mentor 83 Grade 1 pupils from the slow-learner group of J. Zamora. The program required the volunteers to teach four three-hour Saturday sessions with each handling one to three pupils. The mentors were equipped with a lesson plan that would guide them in teaching "students-at-risk" (STARS) in English and Filipino. Their partner teachers from the school would make follow-up group sessions involving the mentored pupils three times a week.
For four Saturdays, the mentors (armed with flash cards, illustrated books, etc.) took the kids on a journey of the mind – from zero reading knowledge to mastering the ABCs, the ba-be-bi-bo-bu’s, their own names, phrases and sentences. It was, what you may call, a journey to the kids’ hearts.
"Hearing my pupils learn to read a word, then a phrase, then a sentence gave me a deep sense of fulfillment," says accountant Vince Torres, echoing each mentor’s sentiments.
Chie Sebastian, executive assistant to country chairman Tim Leveille, says "As a mother, I was moved. I treated them like my own children, teaching them patiently, wiping their faces, instilling some values."
At the program’s closing ceremony, Principal Pereña reported actual results at the end of the four sessions. "Out of 656 pupils in Grade 1, there were 187 who couldn’t read in July, a month after the school opening. In tests conducted on Nov. 18 and Dec. 7, 103 and subsequently 55 pupils remained non-readers. From the 83 mentored by the Caltex volunteers, followed by our teachers, 51 made progress. That is a dramatic feat."
It’s still a long way to go for the Department of Education to reach its zero non-reader target. Thus, the Caltex Mentor Program will continue to foster partnership with public schools in Metro Manila and other parts of the country, and field the same quality of volunteers driven to winning the minds and hearts of children grappling with ABCs.