DAVAO CITY – The assistance of parents to help improve the reading competencies of slow learning local elementary school pupils has been tapped by the city schools division office of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Region 11.

DepEd Region 11 Director Susana Estigoy said the procedure, called “Project PAIR (Parents Assistance in Improving Reading),” was initiated by former city schools division superintendent Gloria Labor and continued by her successor superintendent Helen Paguican.

Estigoy said the parent-assisted reading project, considered the first of its kind in Southern Mindanao, seeks to strengthen and upgrade reading skills for Grades l and 2 pupils to help ensure their academic success in basic education.
She noted that competency in reading in the lower grades plays a significant role in the academic advancement of pupils and students in both elementary and secondary levels.

According to Estigoy, Project PAIR was initiated by Labor, who retired recently, in support of “Every Child A Reader Program (ECARP)” of DepEd’s Bureau of Elementary Education (BEE) headed by Director Yolanda Quijano who pointed out that ECARP mandates that a pupil should become a functional reader as soon as he or she completes Grade 3.

Davao City Division Education Supervisor Thelma Liborato explained that Project PAIR makes reading a family affair which serves as a close follow-up to the reading activities conducted in the classroom in all elementary schools in the city.

Liborato said that every first and second grade pupil is given by the teacher, among other things, a “time sheet” to take home where he or she devotes from 30 minutes to one hour shared reading with his or her parents or any adult member of the family

The “time sheet,” Liborato said, consists of 30 photographs of a bird, which the pupil colors after every successful completion of the reading activity.

According to Liborato, Project PAIR has been slowly but surely been improving the reading skills of grade school children, many of whom were described by their classroom teachers to later become fast learners in major subject areas like English, Filipino, Science and Mathematics.