03/03/2026
Partnership, Continuity, and Innovation in action.
𝐔𝐏𝐋𝐁 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐒𝐨𝐜 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐚𝐭 𝐋𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐳 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥
𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 | iRead: A Reading Campaign by the UPLB Development Communicators’ Society kicks off in partnership with the Rotary Club of San Juan North. This year’s iteration, which started in October 2025 and ended February 2026, focused on 60 grade 3 students from Lopez Elementary School in Los Baños, Laguna.
𝐢𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬
iRead is an annual literacy campaign aimed at encouraging children to develop reading skills and their love for learning, integrating development communication principles by addressing educational needs while raising awareness on different social issues. This program started in the year 2010 as a reading literacy and awareness campaign organized by DevComSoc and volunteers. Traditionally conducted face-to-face in elementary schools, where volunteers teach basic reading, writing, and storytelling skills to kids, the reading campaign shifted its modality when the pandemic forced schools to implement remote and modular learning. With this, the campaign also switched online and launched iRead @ Home which began in 2020.
With the resumption of face-to-face classes after the pandemic, iRead has continued its service throughout schools in the Laguna area. The most recent version of the program, iRead 2025, equipped iKids with knowledge on agricultural topics, culminating in a field trip to Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in Los Baños.
𝐢𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
This year, the program aimed to enhance students’ literacy while fostering a deeper understanding of environmental management by promoting awareness of proper waste disposal, the 5Rs, and each students’ role in supporting the community and environmental well-being. Lasting 11 sessions every Monday in total, the 10th session served as a culminating activity that featured various stations that tested the iKids’ learning from all of the prior sessions they attended. The 11th session, on the other hand, marked the graduation ceremony, celebrating and recognizing each student for completing the entire program and awarding them each with certificates.
Each session generally starts with a big group session where the students all get an overview of the lessons they will learn for that afternoon through the main facilitators of the program. After the group discussion, the students are then divided into smaller groups each with two to three facilitators and volunteers to have a more one-on-one session using the provided reading material. The session then ends with another big group discussion to summarize what they learned for the day.
Different reading and learning materials included stories about local environmental challenges through three main characters named Wacky, Jas, and Ivan who each taught the iKids lessons such as recycling and sentence construction. A children’s storybook titled: ‘Wacky and the 5R’s’ was also distributed as a gift to each of the iKids.
𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲
Grade 3 sections from Lopez Elementary School were included to participate in DepEd’s Modified Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (mCRLA) to measure students’ competency in word recognition, sentence reading, and reading fluency and comprehension for both Filipino and English. The mRCLA results showed the importance of intervention of iRead to support the learners’ literacy development.
Based on the students’ qualitative and quantitative data, learners showed high to very high comprehension across the 10 sessions.Through the different activities and materials facilitated by volunteers, the Grade 3 students of said partner school were able to practice reading aloud, expand their vocabulary in both English and Filipino, and build confidence in expressing their ideas especially from the talk-back sessions and question-and-answer sessions. Teachers noted that the interactive storytelling and environmental-themed exercises helped keep pupils engaged and interested while reinforcing lessons about responsible practices when it comes to waste.
Beyond improving literacy skills, the success of the program also strengthened the partnership between the organization and its partners and the local school community, highlighting student-led initiatives supporting both education and environmental awareness at the grassroots level.
✒️: Polo Quintana
🎨: Mishael Defeo
