By Zaldy De Layola | Philippine News Agency
Top officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday signed an agreement to ensure the continuous implementation of the “Tara, Basa!” tutoring program until 2028.
DSWD Sec. Rex Gatchalian and DepEd Sec. Sonny Angara signed the memorandum of agreement at the DepEd office in Pasig City.
“The signing signifies the renewed commitment of the DSWD and DepEd in providing educational support to the youth and making learning more accessible to struggling or non-reader students,” DSWD Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said in a news release.
Dumlao, the DSWD spokesperson, said the signing of the MOA will ensure the smooth execution of the program in the next four years.
“We are very thankful that we are growing this partnership. A couple of weeks ago, we met with DepEd Assistant Secretary Georgina Ann Hernandez Yang and we were telling her how excited we are to be the vessel of change using the content and the know-how of DepEd,” Gatchalian said after the signing ceremony.
Through the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program, college students are capacitated and deployed as tutors to teach poor and struggling readers in public elementary schools and as youth development workers (YDWs) to facilitate “nanay-tatay” learning sessions.
In exchange for rendering 20 tutoring and learning sessions, these tutors and YDWs receive cash-for-work (CFW) based on the prevailing regional daily minimum wage.
“This is probably going to be one of many collaborations with DepEd with a whole purpose of helping kids finish school, learning how to read, and at the same time transitioning from pure straight-out social welfare to something conditional and developmental. That is what our goal is – to ease into that culture of not mendicancy but rather nation-building,” Gatchalian said.
Under the agreement, the DSWD will formulate program design and guidelines and monitor and provide technical assistance during the conduct of capability building activities, community assemblies, pre-deployment meetings, conduct of Tara, Basa sessions, and payout activities, among others.
The DepEd will be the one to endorse the list of target learners from public schools based on the result of the National Assessment on Reading Comprehension; assist in the matching of tutors and grade school learners; and provide logistical support by allowing the use of facilities and equipment for learning lessons, among other responsibilities.
“We are very grateful for this partnership with DSWD. Definitely, this will improve the delivery of services of learning and I think the interface dito sa DSWD and DepEd will be very fruitful and productive for our children and young learners,” Angara said.
“I know this has been very successful. It was declared as a flagship program by Malacanang recently. We are very happy and fortunate to be part of it and we will do our best to make it succeed.”
On Nov. 22, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin signed Executive Order (EO) 76, declaring “Tara, Basa!” as a flagship program of the national government.
The EO “will ensure the assistance of national government agencies (NGAs) and local government units (LGUs), as well as encourage the private sector, in establishing a collaborative learning program that aims to provide educational opportunities for elementary students.”
The order also mandates the DSWD to work together with the DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education, the National Youth Commission, state universities and colleges, local government units, and other relevant national government agencies and stakeholders to implement and expand the program successfully.
The DSWD and DepEd signed the original “Tara Basa!” agreement in August 2023.
The tutoring program was piloted in the National Capital Region (NCR). It was expanded in 2024 in partnership with Regions 3 (Central Luzon), 7 (Central Visayas), 8 (Eastern Visayas), 10 (Northern Mindanao), 12 (SOCCSKSARGEN), and 4-A (CALABARZON).
The program is the DSWD’s reformatted educational assistance that creates an ecosystem of learning wherein college students are capacitated and deployed as tutors to teach poor and or struggling readers in public elementary schools and as youth development workers to conduct “nanay-tatay” learning sessions.
This year, a total of 120,359 college students, struggling and non-reader elementary learners, and parents benefitted from the tutoring program.