Difference between revisions of "Sarangani Province, Philippines"

'''5,000 incoming grade-schoolers to undergo reading program'''

*Source: http://pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?menu=2&webregion=R12&article=1671336288958

*Monday, May 7, 2012

:by (Beverly Paoyon-PIO Sarangani/PIA 12)

ALABEL, Sarangani, May 7 (PIA) -- Around 5,000 incoming Grades 2 and 3 pupils from all over Sarangani are set to undergo a 15-day remedial reading program to prepare them for the opening of classes in June.  

The “Sarangani Big Brother: Reading is Fun!” was designed by the Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) program of Governor Migs Dominguez to assist the Department of Education (DepEd) in reducing the number of “frustrated readers” in the province.  

Frustrated readers are those who can identify words but have inadequate or no comprehension at all.  

More than 1,000 youth volunteers or “big brothers and big sisters” fondly called as “kuyas” and “ates” will help the 288 teachers this year in mentoring and conducting read-along sessions.  

Three volunteers from Thailand and one from Turkey are also joining the youth this year from the American Field Service Organization, an organization which provides future leaders exchange program to promote global citizenship.  

Nuth Sonthipanyahul, 16, from Bangkok, and three other foreign youth volunteers do their share through storytelling and teaching children to read.  

“It is tiring but fun. It’s good to make them (children) happy,” Sonthipanyahul said.  

However, he observed quite a disparity of the children like those in Jose Warlito Berba Primary School they visited in sitio Kityan Gamay in Malungon.  

“In the city everyone has food, has money to buy their own food but here, they don’t have,” he said.  

“They have to walk like four kilometers five kilometers a day and then they have nothing to eat and the school is just made of wood and they study under the trees, something like that. It’s very bad.”

When asked what he wanted to contribute to these children, he said it should be “education” and teaching them to speak “English because if you can speak English you can go anywhere around the world. You give them more opportunity to work and have a better future.”

“Children are the future of everything. If you give them good life then they will be good,” Sonthipanyahul added.

Elif Gurcinar, an 18-year-old youth volunteer from Turkey, said that more interventions from the government are needed, “because some of the schools are really bad. Classrooms are not enough. Not enough materials.”

 

She said SBB is a laudable intervention of Sarangani to help its slow readers and, “a lot of volunteers are also coming to assist the children. It’s very helpful in their pronunciation. We teach them also English words and letters and how to pronounce them correctly. We also read stories with actions because sometimes they could not understand.”

 

Malungon Sangguniang Kabataan chairman Earl Jared Galvez said, “I observed that these children wish to become volunteers themselves volunteers when they grow up like their big brothers and big sisters.”

 

 

At least, he said, the youth are involved not only in sports activities but also with SBB where, “we are able to touch their (children) lives,” by helping them how to read.

 

 

 

To address this, Ruta said she conducted a one-on-one approach with the kids just to make them read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Palawan and Compostela Valley are replicating Sarangani Big Bother in their own provinces to jumpstart their education reform program.