Basa Pilipinas

Challenge

How do you teach 1 million children how to read? You start by improving literacy instruction at the classroom level.

To this end, EDC supported the Philippines Department of Education in an ambitious, multi-year effort to improve the English, Filipino, and mother tongue literacy skills of 1 million young students from kindergarten to grade 3. Called Basa Pilipinas (Read Philippines), the USAID-funded program reformed reading instruction, improved reading delivery systems, and increased access to quality reading materials throughout the country. On the request of the Department of Education, Basa Pilipinas also tested innovative models for reading remediation and for integrating ICT applications in reading classrooms.

Key Activities

With EDC-designed teacher professional development (based on EDC’s Read Right Now literacy program) at its core, Basa Pilipinas worked to improve reading instruction across the country. The project’s activities included the following:

Provided technical assistance to the Philippines Department of Education in the development of valid and reliable early grade reading standards
Developed and delivered high-quality teacher professional development opportunities that support improved literacy instruction in the classroom
Improved access to quality reading materials in certain rural and high-need schools

Impact

1.8 million students have benefited directly from Basa Pilipinas, and 2 million more have benefited indirectly.
Over 19,000 teachers have been trained.
10 million books and teaching and learning materials have been distributed by Basa to schools in the target regions.
After five years of implementation, 89percent of grade 3 learners in Basa-assisted schools are meeting the Department of Education benchmark for reading comprehension in Filipino.

Read more about the impact of Basa Pilipinas in "Teachers Accelerate Learning in Rural Philippines."