The concerted and dedicated efforts of DIWA partners have very significant and heartwarming gains in terms of improvement in the reading competencies of grade one children.  In some schools and municipalities, test scores were literally jumping.

 

            In Barira (Camp Abubakar was the center of hostilities in 2000), the number of non-readers declined from 76 percent to 47.44 percent.  Now, about one-half of the children can read.  Twenty percent of the children (20.22%) have grade one reading skills compared to only 7.38 percent last year. About 16.44 percent have advanced reading skills compared to only 1.0 percent in 2004.

 

            Almost one-third of the children (27.72%) can understand what they read. 

 

            In Northern Upi (Tirurays), the number of non-readers dropped from 85.02 percent to 53.69% and the number of children who have grade one reading skills increased from 5.51 percent to 16.63 percent.  The number of those with advanced reading skills[1] increased from 1.48 percent to 12.25 percent.

 

            In Marawi City, the reading program benefited children who have basic reading skills (i.e. those of primer and kindergarten levels).  The children who could read like grade one, two and three increased to 44.36 percent compared to only 20.81 percent last year.

 

            About 42.04 percent of the children are good readers, that is, they can understand stories that they read.

 

            Improvements were noted in all schools and all municipalities in terms of more children being able to decode words, i.e. recognize letter and combine their sounds to form words.  The number of non-readers decreased:

 

            Upi West                                from 90.79% to 67.71%

            Datu Paglas South                from 91.2% to 71.14%

            Datu Paglas North                from 84.82% to 75.57%

 

            Although the drop is not staggering in magnitude, the decline in numbers is still heartwarming and only emphasizes the difficulties of the program.  The grade one children participating in the program number about 10,000.  Their scores in the sight reading test vary from 0 to 120 (perfect score) with the median score or one-half of the children reading almost 77 percent of the words and children at the other extreme reading only 20 percent of the total.  The needs and difficulties are varied:  there are classes with 170 children per class; there are children afflicted with hunger; there are those who travel kilometers (partly addressed by free umbrellas and caps from donors).  The problems have to be addressed on a per school and on a per class basis and no general solution can be adequate.

 

            There should be no let up in our efforts.  The challenges are still great.  Many children are still having difficulties in decoding words (sight reading).

 

            Datu Paglas S           71.14 percent

            Datu Paglas N           75.57 percent

            Upi West                    67.71 percent

            Upi North                    53.69 percent

            Barira                         47.44 percent

            Marawi                       31.55 percent

 

            The number of frustrated readers or those who cannot understand anything from what that they are reading is still significant:

 

            North Upi                    55.71 percent

            Upi West                    46.34 percent

            Datu Paglas               41.0 percent

            Barira                         28.48 percent

            Marawi                       8.  76 percent

 

            Shall we all dance with passion to R. Stewart’s song, “We can make it Happen?”

           

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