Impact Assessment of the Brigada Pagbasa Program: Bridging the Gap of Illiteracy

The sudden shift in education has affected the learning foundation of the primary learners due to the COVID-19 pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020) where it prompted the schools to implement home-based schooling. (Lau & Lee, 2021). One of the most vulnerable groups affected in this novel crisis are the learners in their formative years. Their lives have been overturned and every key measure of their development has gone backward. This shift generated challenges for learners’ academic progress (Panagouli et al., 2021). Due to a massive earthquake in 2019 followed by the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, public schools in Bansalan, Davao del Sur have been closed for the past two years. Because of these, most elementary pupils reading skills, particularly in kindergarten, Grade I, and Grade II, were not improved at home. According to the findings of the EGRA (Early Grade Reading Assessment) for the school year 2021-2022, these students, particularly in kindergarten, are mostly non-readers, meaning they lack mastery of letter sounds and letter names in the English alphabet. Similarly, due to the disruption of schooling caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, oral reading fluency for students in early grades is estimated to be about 30% lower than in typical years. Therefore, a national reading movement was implemented.