The Schools Division of Iloilo will implement a community literacy project in support to the vision of the national government to improve the performance of learners.

In an interview on Tuesday, Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Ernesto Servillon Jr. said the “Kasimaryo Ko, Tudlo-an Ko” (My Neighbor, I will Mentor) will be implemented in partnership with barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials, following a convergence meeting with stakeholders on June 26.

“The project was conceptualized based on the urgency of the need because it’s the talk of the town, including the vision of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Education Secretary Sonny Angara to improve the performance of our learners and consequently our community along literacy and numeracy,” he said.

The community literacy program targets out-of-school youth and adults aged 19-65 through an innovative three-pronged approach: peer-to-peer learning systems, community-based reading programs, and specialized adult education methodologies.

“The initiative will be led by school heads and teachers because efforts should be simultaneous, or else we could not feel the effects and impacts in relation to the provincial situation of Iloilo,” Servillon said.

Under the project, barangay officials will help identify and gather residents needing literacy classes. The SK members can volunteer and undergo training to become force multipliers in the conduct of the literacy project in their barangays.

The school head will assign teachers to alternately handle sessions during weekends, initially twice a month.

The sessions are expected to commence in August or September and will continue until all Ilonggos achieve the functional literacy rate as defined by the concerned government agency, Servillon said.

“Almost all our teachers are trained on reading remediation activities because we had school reading activity last summer. For now, we are preparing here at the division office,” he said.

In support of the project, he said the Association of Barangay Captains also initiated the passage of an ordinance for the inclusion of the community literacy project in their annual investment plan.

The community literacy project is part of the response to the latest result of the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS).

The 2024 FLEMMS showed that 88. 6 percent of the five years old and above population of the province are basically literate, and 68.4 percent of the population 10 to 64 years old are functionally literate.

Servillon, however, said that based on the DepEd’s reading inventory using validated instruments in reading and literacy, the performance of learners is around 93 percent. (PNA)