ILOILO CITY—Six municipalities in Iloilo province have been selected as pilot sites for the new Bulig Eskwela (BES) Basa initiative, aimed at enhancing reading skills among Grade 3 students, as part of Governor Arthur Defensor Jr.'s broader educational reform program, BES Probins.

According to the Philippines News Agency, Raul Banias, the provincial administrator, detailed the initiative in an interview on Monday. The municipalities chosen—Oton, San Miguel, Janiuay, Lambunao, Dingle, and Carles—were identified based on their low performance in reading assessments. The program targets Grade 3 learners, a critical stage for developing foundational reading skills that are essential for academic progression.

Banias emphasized the importance of equipping teachers to address these challenges effectively. Over the recent weekend, 128 Grade 3 teachers from these pilot areas received training in the Oral Graphic Symbolic Language (OGSL) program. This training, led by the Public Schools District Supervisors (PSDS) of the Department of Education, covered essential literacy skills such as Sound Symbol Overlay, Building Word Power, and Language Incorporation.

The trainees, all of whom are Department of Education-hired teachers, underwent comprehensive instruction, ensuring that the newly acquired skills would remain within the community and contribute to the program's sustainability. Banias, who also mentors for the education reform NGO Synergia, highlighted the strategy of making every Grade 3 teacher a reading teacher to fundamentally strengthen literacy at this pivotal educational stage.

This initiative comes in response to troubling literacy rates revealed by the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI), which showed that over 75 percent of more than 180,000 learners in the province were performing below average, classified as non-readers or frustrated readers for the school year 2022-2023. The provincial government plans to expand this program across Iloilo, aiming for broader educational improvements based on the outcomes of these pilot efforts.