07/08/2026
BRIDGING THE LITERACY GAP
The Del Monte Foundation and Barangay Bugo Initiative
The Del Monte Foundation, Inc. (DMFI) has renewed its partnership with the Barangay Council and local public schools in Brgy. Bugo, Cagayan de Oro City, to sustain the Pabasa Program for the current school year. Originally piloted alongside the BLGU’s Barangay Employment Services Office (BESO) to address localized literacy gaps, this collaborative initiative unites local government coordination, the Foundation’s resource support, and the academic expertise of public school educators.
Following the successful conclusion of the program's initial pilot phase in school year 2025-26, the parties officially signed a new Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on July 10, 2026. This agreement formalizes the program’s continuity and expands its scope to assist 470 "Frustration Level" learners from the fourth to tenth grades across Bugo Central School, Suntingon Elementary School (Main and Annex Campuses), and Bugo National High School.
Under the agreement, the BLGU coordinates the program and recruits qualified teacher-volunteers. The partner schools provide the learning modules, supervise the tutorials, and allocate dedicated classroom time and space during the school week. To support this joint effort, DMFI funds the reproduction of instructional materials and provides honoraria for the volunteers.
The core mandate of the Pabasa Program is to raise the reading capabilities of targeted students by at least three levels from their initial baselines. During the recently concluded pilot cycle, instruction relied on the phonics-based Marungko Approach, with progress tracked using the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) tool.
Final data for the 326 tracked students demonstrated profound literacy acceleration and completely eliminated student regression:
• Beginner Level: Out of 155 beginner-level learners, nearly 60% achieved the target three-tier leap; 73 reached the Paragraph level, and 18 advanced directly to the highest Story level.
• Letter Level: Out of 109 students who initially recognized only isolated letters, 47 advanced to Paragraphs, and 10 reached the Story level.
• Word Level: Over 97% of Word-level readers moved up, with 20 graduating directly into the Story level tier.
• Paragraph Level: Nearly 65% (11 out of 17 students) successfully graduated to full story literacy.
While past academic results were highly encouraging, final assessments highlighted systemic operational challenges, including irregular student attendance, limited classroom space, and specialized cases requiring alternative learning interventions.
To systematically address these bottlenecks and professionalize the curriculum, the newly active MOA introduces updated, standardized tools aligned with DepEd’s ARAL Program. The instructional framework now pivots to the Fuller Approach and the Whole-Word Method, while student reading capabilities will be officially measured using the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) tool. Schools are allocating exactly two hours during the regular school week to seamlessly align tutorial schedules with the official academic calendar and eliminate scheduling conflicts. Simultaneously, the BLGU is actively expanding community recruitment drives to maintain a robust pool of tutors.
DMFI remains dedicated to working alongside its partner communities to deliver data-driven, sustainable educational solutions that unlock the potential of the youth and contribute to the nationwide movement.
