A REALM IN SHAMBLES

Eileen Lapiz

“Because they are poor, they cannot afford reading materials,” Aleli Dasmariñas, a Filipino teacher, shared her sentiments about how poverty is the biggest factor of illiteracy. “They can grab the concept of what they are reading but could not get the context of the actual text due to lack of reading comprehension abilities,” she added as she also talked about helping students improve their reading comprehension capabilities, such as implementing the Department of Education Order No. 034, s. 2022 which enforces the Learning Recovery and Continuity Plan (LRCP). With this order, the Alabel National Science High School conducts the School Learning Action Cell (SLAC) Intervention and Enrichment Program to address the learning difficulties ANSHS Junior High School students face.

The PISA results prove that the Philippines is indeed facing an educational crisis. As we fix this realm in shambles, we must also remember the famished who lThe educational realm the Philippines has today is slowly falling apart. The quality of education the youth receive today reflects on the learners’ academic performance and explains the results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Report last 2019. The Philippines ranked the lowest in reading comprehension among 79 ASEAN-participating countries with an average score of 340 points below the 487 surveyed average in the PISA report. When the pandemic struck, students had to face an unfamiliar, ghastly realm. They need to get on their devices instead of entering their classrooms. However, people in poverty cannot take online classes since they do not have internet access. This left the learners in a more inefficient learning environment, leaving our education system in shambles.

Lack access to the education we are getting right now. Poverty should not be a hindrance to being educated, thus, education should be fuel to a way to stray out of deprivation.