“Sarangani Big Brother: Reading is Fun!” helps 5,000 kids to read

By BEVERLY C. PAOYON ALABEL, Sarangani (May 4, 2012) – The 15-day remedial reading program for more than 5,000 incoming Grade 2 and 3 pupils from all over Sarangani is underway to prepare kids for the opening of classes in June. This “Sarangani Big Brother: Reading is Fun!” was designed by the Quality Education for Sarangani Today (QUEST) program of Governor Migs Dominguez basically to assist the Department of Education (DepEd) in reducing the number of “frustration readers” in the province. “Frustration readers” are those who can identify words but have inadequate or no comprehension at all. More than a thousand youth volunteers or “big brothers and big sisters” fondly called as “kuyas” and “ates” are helping 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 thru storytelling and teaching children to read. “It is tiring but it’s 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.” “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,” he lamented. 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,” he added. Elif Gurcinar, an 18 year old youth volunteer from Turkey, meanwhile deemed the need for more interventions from the government “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 “nakikita ko na ang mga bata ay gusto rin nilang maging volunteers when they grow up like their big brothers and big sisters.” Galvez recounted “mas mahirap yung experience namin dati because we have to climb pa ng ilang bukid. We have to cross rivers para lang makapunta sa ibat-ibang barangays. Ilang beses kaming natumba sa motor, ilang beses kaming muntik nahulog sa bangin, pero yung over-all ne feeling na nakakatulong sa mga bata is heart-warming.” 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” thru making them able to read. He then hoped that a few years from now “wala nang Grade 2 and 3 na frustrations readers” and SBB will no longer teach remedial reading classes but would instead focus on a higher level to hone the knowledge and skills of these children. Jenneth Ruta, a Grade 1 teacher holding SBB class in Lun Padidu Elementary School in Malapatan said “it’s very difficult to deal with those pupils (frustration readers) because some of my pupils cannot identify letters in the alphabet.” To address this, Ruta said she conducted a one-on-one approach to the kids just to make her pupils read. “During my first day, I started with the alphabet, then the sounds before I was able to make them read words,” Ruta noted. SBB is very helpful because students are not only taught to read but also to develop their comprehension skills, she said. QUEST program manager Annalie Edday said “reading comprehension makes the difference between a passing and a failing grade in school. It is one of the most crucial skills for children to master.” “By Grade 3, children can probably comprehend simple texts but need to work on more advanced comprehension, including summarization and analysis,” Edday said. By reading frequently, she said, is one of the “most effective things children can do to improve reading comprehension in Grade 3, but there are enrichment activities to make frequent reading more powerful.” “Sarangani Big Brother: Reading is Fun!” is a whole day remedial reading program from April 17 to May 8 implemented in partnership with the DepEd, QUEST, Sangguniang Kabataan and the Alcantara Foundation. The rest of the sponsors this year are Synergia Foundation, Sagittarius Mining Corp. and World Vision. Palawan and Compostela Valley are replicating Sarangani Big Bother in their own provinces to jumpstart their education reform program. For more news and updates, please visit the Province of Sarangani . (Beverly C. Paoyon/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)