[ Home ]

SIL PHILIPPINES OVERVIEW
	[ Translation ] [ Personnel ] [ Literacy ]  [ Linguistics ] [ Aviation ] [ Libraries ] [ First Language Component ] [ Main Overview Menu ]
The 20th World Congress on Reading was held at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel, Manila, Philippines July 26-29, 2004. The theme, Literacy Across Cultures, and had a particular focus on the teaching of reading in the Philippines and across Asia. A number of members of SIL International and SIL Philippines gave presentations, sharing from field experience and research on innovative approaches to education and implications for student achievement and policy development.
SIL Philippines Literacy Specialist Diane Dekker delivered a paper entitled Current Results of Use of the First Language Component-Bridging Program in the Lubuagan Public School System (northern Philippines). In it she described the impact of a multilingual education approach incorporating the first language of the learner and a structured methodology for implementing transition to the other languages of education (the national language, Filipino and the international language, English). [Mrs. Dekker had also presented a paper on the implementation of multilingual education at the International Conference on Language Development, Language Revitalisation and Multilingualism, Bangkok, Thailand in November 2003. This paper, co-authored and delivered with a teacher from Lubuagan, Kalinga, Philippines, was entitled First Language Education in Lubuagan, Northern Philippines. Greg Dekker, Director of SIL Philippines, presented a paper addressing Language Issues Affecting Reader and Listener Interest, Comprehension, and Response. Dr. Susan Malone, SIL Asia Area Literacy Coordinator and Literacy Consultant, spoke on the challenges of Incorporating mother tongue literacy into majority language education programs: Innovations in Asia. Catherine Young, SIL Philippines Associate Director for Academic Affairs, addressed the issue of policy development in the Philippines and across Asia in relation to the UNESCO International Literacy Decade in her paper entitled First Language: Quality Education for All. This Congress was sponsored by the International Reading Association.

---

Literacy

Literacy continues to be a focus of the work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics internationally and in the Philippines. SIL International has status as a consulting member of UNESCO and has been involved in the Education for All (EFA) consultations. The EFA 2000 Assessment demonstrates that there has been significant progress in many countries. But it is unacceptable in the year 2000 that more than 113 million children have no access to primary education, 880 million adults are illiterate, gender discrimination continues to permeate education systems, and the quality of learning and the acquisition of human values and skills fall far short of the aspirations and needs of individuals and societies... (Item 5, The Dakar Framework for Action, adopted by the World Education Forum, Dakar, Senegal, 26-28 April 2000)

In the Philippines, SIL is pleased to be involved in literacy activities which touch the lives of adults, young people and children. Although the Philippines has a basic literacy rate of more than 88.5%, pockets of illiteracy remain. According to the Department of Education, there are more than 1 million pre-literates in the country and more than 6 million people are deemed to be functionally illiterate. Many of these are found among the indigenous cultural communities where SIL works in association with the Philippines Department of Education. The languages spoken by a number of these communities have had no written tradition. Initial work involves linguistic research which leads to the development of an appropriate orthography for the language – an alphabet which is easily read and affords the student opportunity to use the skills they have learned in reading in the vernacular to transition to reading in other Philippine languages. SIL endeavors to serve these communities through literacy education - tailoring such education to the felt needs of the people using a learner centered, bottom-up approach. Our desire is that, beginning from initial literacy, the learner will develop a desire to maintain their reading and writing skills and that these will provide the basis for continuing education, benefiting the individual, the community in which he lives and his nation. Learning is a lifelong process and some of the basic tools are reading, writing and numeracy.

• MALEI (Matigsalug Literacy Education Incorporated) oversees the on-going development of literacy and education among the Matigsalug Manobo of Davao del Norte and Bukidnon. SIL members, Robert and Margaret Hunt and Karsten van Riezen, helped facilitate the formation of this people’s organization. MALEI aims to include community education as part of their on-going programs for out-of-school youth and adults. Typically, this would include sessions on topics such as budgeting, leadership training and agricultural matters.
  
  On December 14, 2001, MALEI received the award from the Regional Office of the Department of Education in Bagayan de Oro for the "Most Outstanding Literacy Program."

• Since 1990, there has been a thriving literacy program facilitated by SIL members, Ena Vandermolen and Vera Khor, in conjunction with a community organization among the Obo Manobo. Under the umbrella of OMALRACDI (Obo Manobo Active Language Resource and Community Development Inc.), various activities take place in partnership with SIL. These include the promotion of literacy through equipping Manobos to become literacy teachers and supervisors. To date, more than eight Literacy Teacher Institutes have been held in Manobo communities, taught by Manobos. OMALRACDI also facilitates health care education programs through primary health care classes taught by a Manobo midwife.

• The Dupaninan Agta had more than 50 graduates of their literacy program during 2000. With partial funding from the regional office of the Department of Education, literacy teachers have been trained and students have learned to read and write. At a recent graduation, diplomas were awarded both to students that had become fluent readers and also to those who had developed basic literacy skills of name writing. The most recent graduation was attended by the Vice Governor of the Province and senior officials of the Bureau of Alternative Learning Systems.

• There have been exciting developments in the trilingual education program among Tagakaulo Kalagan speakers of Sarangani Province and Davao del Sur in association with the Department of Education Bureaus of Elementary Education and Alternative Learning Systems. Beginning in the barangay of Lutay, an area which formerly has had neither formal school for children nor non-formal classes for adults, a program for children has begun where basic reading and writing lesson materials are constructed first in the mother tongue of the students, bridging into Filipino and English. SIL members, Bus and Jean Dawson, are very active in this area and the program is spreading to a number of Tagakaulo speaking areas. There is also interest in using a similar program for areas of Davao del Norte and Sarangani provinces where students speak Tboli and Blaan languages.

See also: First Language Component.

[ Top ][ Home ]

[ Home ][ Purpose ][ Overview ][ What's New ][ FAQ ][ Awards ]
[ Publications ][ Language Map ][ Advisory Council ][ Site Map ]
[ 50th Anniversary ]

Copyright © 2006 Summer Institute of Linguistics Philippines
All rights reserved.

Suggestions about this site may be sent to:
info_philippines@sil.org

Or mailed to:
PO Box 2270 CPO, 1099 Manila, Philippines