Rhoda Mudlong, principal of Kidzspace Learning Center (KLC), one of three private elementary schools here that accommodate public school students with reading difficulties in their summer enrichment classes, said they have 36 non-readers and slow readers including two incoming Grade 7 students. She said the two “read like Grade 1 pupils so we are using Grade 1 reading books and starting from the very beginning,” adding they also had four Grade 7 students last summer. The Tabuk City National High School (TCNHS) which started its reading program more than a decade ago to help first-year students with reading problems catch up with their classmates, had 57 in the reading class last school year. Under the policy, pupils who do not have the reading skills commensurate to their grade are promoted to the next grade on condition that the teacher commits to tutor the child during the summer. Because of the difficulties that teachers have to go through to justify failing students, what usually happens is they pass undeserving students to avoid all the hassles.

Source: Manila Times April 29, 2018 12:22 UTC