By Joseph B.A. Marzan
The Department of Education-Iloilo City (DepEd-Iloilo City) hopes for improvement in literacy of school pupils through Hiligaynon-based illustrated books provided by its partners on May 3, 2021.
A compilation of Hiligaynon decodable readers for Grade 1 pupils were turned over by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), under its “ABC+: Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines” project, to the La Paz I Elementary School in La Paz district.
Principals and parent representatives from La Paz I, La Paz II, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Nabitasan, N.J. Ingore, and Ticud Elementary Schools graced the event to receive 746 books.
A total of 6,391 books will be turned over to 55 elementary schools in Iloilo City as part of the project.
The books were developed with a team of select teachers, who had been tapped to serve as writers, illustrators, and editor through training workshops:
– Maryhope Flores (Writer, from E. Yusay Memorial School, Arevalo district);
– Jocel Hamto (Writer, from Arevalo Elementary School);
– Ria Jaleco (Illustrator, from A. Montes II Elementary School, City Proper);
– Jonathan Jaleco (Illustrator, from Ticud Elementary School, La Paz district); and
– Dr. Dymphna Liezel Jocson (Editor and Public School District Supervisor, Jaro 4-C)
They were also given copies of the books and other materials during the turnover ceremony.
Because these books were based on DepEd’s policy directives on Mother Tongue-Based (MTB) Multilingual Education, the ABC+ project focused on developing decodable readers, which are texts that are controlled for specific phonics patterns, to support beginning reading.
The ceremonial turnover also involved the initial printing of Teaching Guides and Home Learner’s Guides in connection with the use of the books in line with the blended learning modality amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The guides were printed using risographs donated by the Iloilo City Government through its Special Education Fund.
According to Ina Aquino, Chief of Party of the ABC+ Project, the project, which started in 2019, was supposed to kick off in March 2020, but was stalled by lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the turnover ceremony, Aquino said the books went through a “tedious” quality assurance process, going through more than 8 language specialists and many organizations including the DepEd and other partners.
She emphasized that the project would help with children’s development, particularly in reading using the Hiligaynon language.
“When you receive your copy, look at it carefully. It looks like a simple book, but it was developed with tears and sweat. Our writers and illustrators took many days to work on this book, and this went through a tedious quality assurance process. (sic) The significance of reading does not need to be repeated. A child who can read, you’re going to open the world to that child. You’re giving him a better chance at life, because he can learn all other things,” Aquino said.
Iloilo City Schools Division Superintendent Ma. Luz De Los Reyes welcomed the project’s support in the development of learners in the city’s elementary schools, saying that this is of great help amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
De Los Reyes touted the project as forming a significant part of the City Division’s Creating and Capturing Opportunities through Equitable, Holistic and Productive Education in Iloilo City (CCOPE HOPE) banner program to combat the pandemic.
“Amid this pandemic and challenging times, we were able to cope, and we continue to hope that soon we will be able to survive and declare ourselves victorious because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When we speak of teaching and learning, we mean that for teachers and learners, for more than a year already, ABC+ is there to provide most particularly materials and modules, and now we have new decodable readers for our learners,” she said in her remarks.
She confirmed to media after that the books will be turned over directly to learners, meaning that more copies of the books will be printed for the next school year to new sets of pupils.
She also said that the decoded books will not only help children read in Hiligaynon, but also comprehend the language.
“It will not only help them improve [reading in Hiligaynon] under MTB, but also to decode entirely. If it were only MTB, we wouldn’t need to teach them because that’s basic language, but MTB will help them read [these books]. Using the material and MTB, it will be easy for the child to decode, and they will be able to read them from Hiligaynon to Tagalog to English,” she said.
The five-year ABC+ Project aims to improve the quality of instruction and learning outcomes in Kindergarten through Grade 3 in early literacy, foundational math, and social and emotional learning (SEL) in the Bicol Region and Western Visayas and in Maguindanao province in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
It was also implemented in partnership with the nonprofit organizations RTI International and The Asia Foundation, and educational institutions Florida State University and Summer Institute for Linguistics.
According to Aquino, 3.81 million learning materials have been turned over to local education authorities in Regions 5 and 6.
In this region, 129,000 materials have been turned over to Western Visayas as of this writing, available in Hiligaynon for Iloilo, Capiz, and Negros Occidental, and Sugbuanon for several areas in Negros Occidental.
She told media during the turnover program that Kinaray-a materials are set to be developed and turned over before the end of the year, and also revealed plans to develop materials in Akeanon.
