Teaching values
through reading

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Managing Editor ANTONIETA B. LOPEZ Business Editor ODETTE MONTELIBANO Desk Editor MARY ANN BARCELONA Advertising Coordinator RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete

ANDRES R. LEONARDIA Managing Director

We commend the initiative of our Department of Education officials in Negros Oriental in helping the less fortunate Grade One pupils living in the hinterland barangays of the province learn how to read as beneficiaries of the Bright Minds Read, or BMR, program.

The study conducted by DepEd in the National Capital Region, showed that four out of ten Grade One pupils in public schools are non-readers. The pupils become either "students at risk" of not qualifying for Grade Two, or they fall behind for the duration of their schooling, simply because they can hardly read.

The program has identified about 66 Grade One children from 23 district public schools in the province who cannot read and will be taught proper reading habits. At the same time they will be taught good Filipino values to develop them into well-rounded individuals.

The Negros Oriental provincial government has purchased 60 BMR kits for various public schools in the province to be used for training teachers in implementing the curriculum.

The BMR kit contains 32 teacher training modules, 32 illustrated English and Filipino big books promoting Filipino values and 200 worksheets specially designed to enhance beginning reading skills.

We hope that the BMR program will succeed in improving the reading skills of our less fortunate pupils living in the hinterlands, and also that teachers will receive adequate training in implementing the program properly.

Although the BMR concept is relatively new, we should give it a try in the hope that it can help improve, not only the reading skills of those children, but also their learning capability, and at the same time to develop the efficiency of teachers and their zeal in making sure that their pupils truly learn how to read.*