Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian is set to sign an agreement with Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara for the continuous implementation of the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program.
The two executives will sign the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on Friday (December 20) at the Office of the Secretary of DepEd Central Office in Pasig City.
“The signing signifies the renewed commitment of the DSWD and DepEd in providing educational support to the youth and making learning more accessible to struggling or non-reader students,” Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao, who is also the DSWD spokesperson, said.
According to Asst. Secretary Dumlao, the signing of the MOA will ensure the smooth execution of the program until 2028.
On November 22, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin signed Executive Order 76, declaring the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program as flagship program of the national government.
The EO “will ensure the assistance of national government agencies (NGAs) and local government units (LGUs), as well as encourage the private sector, in establishing a collaborative learning program that aims to provide educational opportunities for elementary students.”
It also mandates the DSWD to work together with the DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the National Youth Commission (NYC), state universities and colleges (SUCs), local government units (LGUs), and other relevant national government agencies and stakeholders to implement and expand the program successfully.
The DSWD and DepEd signed the first agreement during the launch of the pilot implementation of the Tara, Basa! Tutoring program in August 2023.
The tutoring program was piloted in the National Capital Region (NCR) in Quezon City as well as in the cities of Caloocan, Valenzuela, Malabon, Navotas, Manila, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasay, Las Pinas, Marikina, San Juan, Pasig, Taguig, Paranaque, Muntinlupa, and in the lone municipality of Pateros.
It was expanded in 2024 in partnership with the local government units (LGUs) in Regions 3 (Central Luzon), 7 (Central Visayas), 8 (Eastern Visayas), 10 (Northern Mindanao), 12 (SOCCSKSARGEN), and CALABARZON.
The Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program is the DSWD’s reformatted educational assistance that creates an ecosystem of learning wherein college students are capacitated and deployed as tutors to teach poor and or struggling readers in public elementary schools and as youth development workers (YDWs) to conduct Nanay-Tatay learning sessions.
This 2024, a total of 120,359 college students, struggling and non-reader elementary learners, and parents benefitted from the agency’s tutoring program.
