Making 'stars' shine

With a new chief steering the Department of Education (DepED), focus is once again being centered on how badly quality of education has deteriorated due to widespread non-readership among Filipino students in public elementary schools.

"Despite excellent teaching methods, many children lag behind in the average reading class across all levels," notes Department of Education Asst. School Division Superintendent for Batangas Dr. Florencia dela Peña.

"Slow readership is manifested by excessive head movements, finger-pointing, omission, stuttering, hesitation, and repetition," Dela Peña points out. "This can be attributed to various factors, including individual learning differences, lack of training, physical disability, environmental factors, and low self-esteem. As a result, reading comprehension falls with the ability to anticipate meaning."

Caltex volunteers for mentors

Fortunately, Chevron Philippines has long recognized this problem and is doing its share to help improve literacy and the quality of education among schoolchildren to a competitive level. As a partner in DepEd’s Zero Non-Readership Project, Chevron Philippines opted to go beyond mere donations. It sends volunteer mentors as reinforcement for the professional educators.

"The Caltex Mentorship Program (CMP) is an excellent DepEd partner in achieving zero non-readership among students. It provides a new panorama of thought using an innovative cycle of activities that provide skills in the ability to recognize words, leading to phrase and sentence reading, and improvement of comprehension skills," remarks Dela Peña.

As the company’s flagship volunteerism project, the Caltex Mentor Program enables employees, customers and various business partners of Chevron Philippines Inc. to offer their personal time and talent to contribute to better education through one-on-one mentoring.

An 80% average success rate

The Caltex Mentor Program won the prestigious International Association of Business Communicators Gold Quill Awards for Community Relations barely four months after it was launched and the Public Relations Society of the Philippines’s Anvil Award for Excellence in 2005. It was also a finalist in the Asian Corporate Social Responsibility Awards 2004 in the Support an Improvement of Education category, chosen from among 197 entries from 110 organizations in 15 countries.

Today, the Caltex Mentor Program boasts of an average 80 percent success rate in improving reading skills of "Students at Risk" (STARS), students who have been identified as either slow readers or non-readers in a series of DepEd-approved diagnostic tests that were administered before the start of the program. Since its launch in 2002, the Caltex Mentor Program has spread to various public schools, helping improve reading skills of more than 1,000 students in Manila, Mandaluyong, Quezon City, Pangasinan, Batangas, and Iloilo City through the help of more than 600 volunteers. Future plans include launching the Caltex Mentor Program in General Santos City and Cebu City, as well as developing more materials for upper grade levels.

"We know teachers already have their hands full, and Chevron Philippines is here to help. Children represent the leadership of tomorrow and by providing them the basic skills of reading and comprehension through the Caltex Mentor Program, we help them begin to master other disciplines. We are laying down the foundation for our future," explains Mark Quebral, Chevron manager for Policy, Government and Public Affairs.

A teaching mission in Batangas

Recently, the Caltex Mentor Program and its 40 volunteer-mentors went on a teaching mission to San Pascual, Batangas to help 70 grade I and II non-readers of San Antonio Elementary School by the end of four weeks. These students had been identified in a series of diagnostic reading tests as "students at risk."

For this session, Chevron partnered with DepEd Batangas officials, the municipal government of San Pascual, Batangas led by Mayor Mario V. Magsaysay, Jr. well as members from the Batangas Rotary Club.

Caltex Mentor Program adheres to the belief that "not because you know how to read, you can teach reading." For this reason, volunteers are required to undergo a crash course conducted by professional educators on teaching non-readers from letter to syllabic levels, word to sentence levels, and slow and frustration levels. Then for four consecutive Saturdays, the volunteers conducted mentoring sessions, which were followed up with classroom activities and home study during the weekdays in partnership with the teachers and parents. The STARS’ parents also underwent the mentor training with the volunteers to achieve a level of consistent mentoring and supervision while the Caltex Mentor Program is in session.

After completing the four sessions, 61 of the 70 STARS took another test to gauge their improvement. Test results show that all 66 of the students enrolled in the program have passed with a majority raking perfect to near perfect scores, clear proof that the STARs can now be called readers.

The Caltex Mentor Program graduation was a proud moment for the former non-readers, their parents and mentors. In attendance during the recognition ceremony were San Pascual Mayor Mario V. Magsaysay, Jr., Department of Education Assistant School Divisions for Batangas Superintendent Dr. Florencia Dela Peña, San Antonio Elementary School faculty led by principal Trinidad Agbay and Master Teacher II Lolita Magbojos, Caltex Officers led by Mark Quebral, Caltex Business Partners, and CMP volunteers.

Special awards were presented to the most improved students and their mentors. Among the Most Improved Students and Mentors were John Steven Carpio and Cecille Garcia; and Moises Gutlay and Jerrywin Waga.

Jingle Lirio, Grade II adviser, enrolled 14 out of her 35 pupils in Caltex Mentor Program. She attests to how the program helped the children a great deal. "I saw for myself how Caltex Mentor Program improved their reading comprehension. They’ve become more lively in classroom discussions… The Caltex Mentor Program was just what the children needed to give them the confidence and enthusiasm that sparked their learning process, and inspired them to embrace the value of education."