To enhance learners’ literacy skills, the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) have reaffirmed their collaboration in implementing the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program (TBTP).
DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara and DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian formalized the partnership by signing a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on Friday at the DepEd Central Office in Pasig City.
Photo courtesy: DepEd Philippines
Recently designated as a flagship initiative by President Bongbong Marcos Jr. under Executive Order No. 76, s. 2024, signed on November 22, 2024, the Tara, Basa! Program aims to address literacy gaps among struggling learners while offering temporary employment opportunities to financially disadvantaged college students.
“I know this has been very successful and it was declared a flagship program by Malacañang recently, and we are very happy and fortunate to be part of it and we will do our best to make it succeed,” Sec. Angara said.
The TBTP program focuses on Grade 1 learners identified as struggling readers and incoming Grade 2 non-readers as its primary beneficiaries. It also includes Nanay-Tatay Teacher Sessions, designed to provide parents and guardians with resources to aid their children’s literacy development. These sessions are facilitated by pre-service teachers and Youth Development Workers (YDW), who receive financial assistance and gain work experience in return.
Photo courtesy: DSWD
In its inaugural year in 2024, TBTP supported 120,359 beneficiaries, including college students, struggling and non-reader elementary learners, and parents.
With the collaboration of national government agencies, state universities and colleges (SUCs), local government units (LGUs), and other stakeholders, the program aims to expand its reach to 207,000 beneficiaries by 2025.
“This is probably going to be one of the many collaborations with DepEd with the whole purpose of helping kids finish school, learning how to read, and at the same time transitioning, like I said from pure straight-out social welfare to something conditional and developmental,” Sec. Gatchalian noted.
Under the renewed partnership between the two agencies, DepEd will take charge of identifying and assessing learner-beneficiaries, enhancing tutor training programs in collaboration with the Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED), providing school venues, and facilitating logistical arrangements.
