The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) welcomed on Wednesday (November 27) Malacañang’s issuance of Executive Order (EO) 76 declaring the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program as a flagship program of the national government.
“We express our gratitude to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for acknowledging the educational assistance program initiated by DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian. We are honored to spearhead this initiative, which aims to support low-income students and families,” Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao, also the agency spokesperson, said.
On November 22, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin signed EO 76, which “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.”
The EO also mandates the DSWD to work together with the Department of Education (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 spokesperson pointed out that the agency remains dedicated to taking the essential steps to broaden the reach of the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program, ensuring that more beneficiaries across the country will benefit.
In 2024, a total of 120,359 college students, struggling and non-reader elementary learners, and parents benefitted from the agency’s tutoring program.
Through the Tara, Basa!, college students were trained and placed in selected elementary schools to enhance the reading proficiency of elementary students and conduct Nanay-Tatay teacher sessions for parents and guardians of the grade school beneficiaries.
Under the program, college students receive financial aid based on the regional minimum wage rate in their areas in exchange for the 20 tutorial and parenting sessions.
In exchange for attending Nanay-Tatay learning sessions, parents and guardians are given a Php235 fee per session.
The DSWD launched the Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program in the National Capital Region (NCR)
in August 2023.
The program was expanded in 2024 in partnership with the 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 will be 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. #
