Recognize Me: Persuasive Text

“Our students do not know how to process the text,” opined Frederick Perez, current president of the Reading Association of the Philippines.

The dismal performance of the Philippines in the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) sends the message that the country's educational system need to take reading instruction seriously, particularly in upskilling teachers and developing effective materials for reading instructions.

The PISA report also revealed that expenditure per student in the country is90 percent lower than the global average, and this limited funding results in the absence of viable teaching materials. This hampers the ability of each student to learn and comprehend the materials presented.

The reading problem is a national issue, so there has to be an immediate evaluation of the curriculum. Also, the government must consider allocating more funds to the education sector to make possible the training of teachers, as well as the creation and evaluation of teaching and learning materials.

Moreover, the Department of Education should develop materials that would introduce the learners to expository texts which deal with information. Filipino learners performed poorly in the PISA because the test is mostly made up of expository texts and calls for the processing of information, and they are not prepared for it.