BY: NORLANIE ASIS CERENA

DULAG, Leyte- Anchored from the K to 12 Basic Education Program, the Department of Education(DepEd) is now implementing a new assessment tool dubbed as Philippine Informal Reading (PHIL IRI) that aims to address the reading difficulties and alleviate the reading performance of every learner from Grade 3 to Grade 7 in English and Filipino.
This new tool is now being implemented in all public elementary and secondary schools starting this school year.
The said new assessment tool covers a series of reading test which starts from the Group Screening Test (GST ) in two languages which will serve as a starting point to which teachers will be able to determine those learners who need reinforcement or enhancement and to those who strongly needs remediation and interventions through series of graded passages in which the three reading levels the frustration, instructional and independent level should be determined ,regardless of their current grade levels
Through the enforcement of PHIL IRI, with some teachers taking as an additional burden to them, DepEd strongly affirms that the new assessment tool, if properly conducted and religiously followed, will serve as a breakthrough in the reading performance of school children as well as leaving no child left behind.
(Note: The author is the school head of Dacay Elementary School of Dulag North District in Dulag, Leyte)