The expanded implementation of the “Tara Basa!” tutoring program will kick off in Cebu City soon, a senior official of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said on Wednesday.

Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications Romel Lopez said the DSWD would implement the tutoring program, which is the agency’s recalibrated educational assistance in other regions after its successful pilot run in the National Capital Region (NCR) last year.

Lopez said the ceremonial launch in Cebu City would be held on March 8.

“Following the good feedback and success of our pilot run in Metro Manila, we are about to bring Tara, Basa! program to more communities around the country,” he said.

Lopez said the expansion would cover San Jose del Monte City; Malolos City; Bulacan province; Cebu City; Marawi City; Taraka in Lanao del Sur; Western Samar; General Santos City; and Quezon province. The program will also be implemented in more local government units (LGUs) in the NCR.

As part of the kick-off ceremony in Cebu City, a memorandum of agreement (MOA) will be jointly signed by Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, and State Universities and Colleges (SUC) president Dr. Daniel Ariaso Sr. of Cebu Normal University (CNU).

The MOA will formalize the DSWD-LGU-SUC partnership in implementing Tara! BASA in Cebu City.

“The MOA stipulates the duties and responsibilities of the stakeholders in ensuring the proper implementation of Tara, Basa! tutoring program in Cebu City. With this program, non- and struggling readers in elementary will benefit through the provision of reading sessions,” he said.

Aside from these, their parents and guardians will also be given cash-for-work (CFW) in exchange for their attendance in “Nanay-Tatay” learning sessions and in assisting their children in preparing their needs for learning and reading and in their after-reading assignments, Lopez added.

Under the program, 2nd- to 4th-year college students will be deployed as tutors who will teach children beneficiaries to read.

Additionally, youth development workers (YDWs) will facilitate Nanay-Tatay sessions to provide parents or guardians with parenting guidance.

Lopez reiterated that Tara, Basa! is the reformatted educational assistance of the DSWD that creates an ecosystem of learning wherein college students will be capacitated and deployed as tutors to teach poor and non- or struggling readers in elementary and as YDWs to conduct Nanay-Tatay sessions. (PNA)