The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regional office here is expanding the implementation of Tara, Basa! (let’s read) tutoring program to cover more areas in 2025.

From serving 1,981 struggling learners in 2024, the program served 5,040 non-readers in Samar and the cities of Tacloban and Ormoc, according to the DSWD.

The number of tutors will increase to 1,508 this year from just 375 in 2024. Some 5,040 parents will participate in the program, up from 1,977 who took part last year.

“The DSWD field office has been working closely with partner stakeholders to ramp up the social preparation activities for the 2025 implementation of the tutoring program in the region,” the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

Under the program, qualified college students from low-income families will be deployed as tutors and youth development workers (YDWs) to conduct reading tutorials for struggling or non-reader pupils and carry out sessions for the parents of learners.

In return for their service rendered, they will receive a daily pay equivalent to the prevailing minimum wage (PHP435) in the region for 20 days, from May 19 to June 23, 2025.

Parents who attended the sessions with topics including effective parenting, dynamics of Filipino families, challenges in parenting, and children’s rights, among others, will receive a daily allowance of PHP235.

The measure is a reformatted educational assistance program for college students from low-income families.

Over the past weeks, the DSWD regional program management office has been conducting a series of coordination meetings with the Department of Education and partner state universities and colleges to ensure that all social preparation activities will be done according to agreed timelines.

These include the selection and crossmatching of beneficiaries, orientation to would-be tutors and YDWs, capability-building activities, and community assemblies, among others. (PNA)