Youth volunteers teach kids to read this summer

ALABEL, Sarangani (April 8, 2011) – Youth volunteers for Sarangani Big Brother: Reading is Fun! yesterday signified support to the Department of Education (DepEd) in converting incoming Grades 1 and 2 identified “frustration readers” into independent ones.

Sarangani Big Brother (SBB), is the program of the provincial government in partnership with DepEd, Panlalawigang Pederasyon Sangguniang Kabataan, and the Alcantara Foundation.

It is designed “to assist DepEd in improving the reading skills of these kids,” Quality Education for Sarangani Today program manager Annalie Edday explained.

The program was first thought to make “reading as fun,” said Edday, “but since there are quite a number of frustration readers so we made SBB season 4 as a remedial reading program.”

SBB was launched in 2008 in which Governor Migs Dominguez said the first concern then was how to draw and harness the spirit of volunteerism among the youth “to be able to make them contribute in the community.”

He said “the secret to success is really harnessing that spirit” He then linked this to the “improvement in education” here in the past years.

“Masarap makatulong bumasa at buksan ang mga mata ng mga bata and teach them to dream big!,” Dominguez told the volunteers in Alabel during their training.

Volunteers and teachers who will facilitate the reading program will be trained particularly for this purpose. The roll out of training for each municipality, other than Alabel, will still be conducted this April before classes would start.

“For the past three years, SBB became a channel in unifying the school’s community and utilizing the collective efforts of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) of the province,” Edday said.

SBB season 4 is anchored on the theme, “Engaging oneself as Big Brother or Big Sister to help Sarangani kids ready for the opportunities in the future.”

Dominguez said, “success lies in education. It opens up boundaries we think impossible. Education from elementary to high school up to college will ensure better future.”

Alabel SK chairman Florence Paul Salarda said “investment in human capital has become a condition for international competitiveness hence in SK, we put education as one of our leadership agenda.”

“The youth’s education is a good investment one must put their efforts and greater attention to,” Salarda added.

This summer, he said, “we are trying to get the participation of the frustration readers so when they enroll into the next grade, they could already compete.”

From the post test conducted in March, the teachers identified the pupils to undergo the 15-day reading class on April 25 to May 13.

This time, Edday said the governor wrote the parents urging to support their children by sending them to SBB remedial class. (Beverly Paoyon/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)