Impact Assessment of the Brigada Pagbasa Program: Bridging the Gap of Illiteracy
Authors: Linao James R. , Alestre Dr. Lorna 
Published: May 2024

The sudden shift in education has affected the learning foundation of the primary learners due to the COVID-19 pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020) where it prompted the schools to implement home-based schooling. (Lau & Lee, 2021). One of the most vulnerable groups affected in this novel crisis are the learners in their formative years. Their lives have been overturned and every key measure of their development has gone backward. This shift generated challenges for learners’ academic progress (Panagouli et al., 2021). Due to a massive earthquake in 2019 followed by the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, public schools in Bansalan, Davao del Sur have been closed for the past two years. Because of these, most elementary pupils reading skills, particularly in kindergarten, Grade I, and Grade II, were not improved at home. According to the findings of the EGRA (Early Grade Reading Assessment) for the school year 2021-2022, these students, particularly in kindergarten, are mostly non-readers, meaning they lack mastery of letter sounds and letter names in the English alphabet. Similarly, due to the disruption of schooling caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, oral reading fluency for students in early grades is estimated to be about 30% lower than in typical years. Therefore, a national reading movement was implemented. The Brigada Pagbasa Program aims to bring together all education champions and supporters in order to contribute to nation building by assisting all Filipino children in improving their reading skills in a collaborative setting. This is in support of the DepEd’s goal of providing children with access to high- quality education. The Brigada Pagbasa campaign also aims to help Filipino children become functionally literate and to empower parents, caregivers, community volunteers, and education stakeholders within the context of transparency and local accountability by establishing a link between partners and vulnerable communities to support last-mile learners and ensure access to after-school structured literacy development programs. Moreover, Rizal Elementary School’s Massive Reading Advocacy for Struggling Kids (MASK) program support the Department of Education’s (DepED) Every Child a Reader Program (ECRP) and Massive Reading Advocacy for Struggling Kids (MASK) programs, which aim to produce functionally literate learners who can decode and make sense of what they read, as well as instill a love of reading. This intervention program is similar to the reading program of Lipa City National High School, in Lipa City, Batangas Philippines called HAMON: Bawat Bata Bumabasa (3Bs Initiative). It was revealed to be effective in eradicating the reading problems in the school. Results showed that learners’ level of consonance to word reading and reading comprehension has improved. Therefore, even in the midst of distance learning, addressing reading difficulties is still possible through remote learning instructions (Dorado & Medina, 2022). Thus, the Community Extension Center (CEC) of UM Bansalan College (UMBC) works closely with the Department of Teacher Education (DTE) and other stakeholders, including local officials from Barangay Rizal, Bansalan, Davao del Sur, including the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK), and St. Mary’s College of Bansalan Inc. Furthermore, through the Brigada Pagbasa Project, anchored in the school-based learning intervention program dubbed Project MASK, UM Bansalan College and Rizal Elementary School, in collaboration with stakeholder partners, aim to reduce the number of Non-Readers and Frustration Level Readers by 75 percent by the end of May 2022. As a result, this study was conducted to evaluate the program’s effectiveness by improving the reading skills of identified Rizal Elementary School pupils from February to June 2022.