Tanauan City in Batangas topped the list in reading comprehension

This was back in 2006-2007 when the Department of Education rolled out the results of the English Reading Test (ERT)
please read below on the complete article from PIA.

PIA Press Release
2009/09/03

DepEd bats for library hubs to help improve student performance

Pasig City (3 September) -- Education Secretary Jesli Lapus reported the Library Hubs established in different schools divisions in the country have helped improve students' reading proficiency, evaluation results showed.

Library Hubs are also known as 'warehouse' or wholesale library which mainly serves public elementary students. The hub provides supplementary reading materials in plastic bins that are sorted by subject area or theme.

"I believe that library hubs are instrumental in developing the habit for reading among our public school students," Lapus said.

The results of the English Reading Test (ERT) showed that out of 32 schools divisions with Hubs, 15 registered a 50 Mean Percentage Score (MPS) or higher in 2005-2006. The MPS generally improved in 2006-2007.

In 2006-2007, Tanauan City in Batangas topped the list in reading comprehension with an MPS of 70.89% or an improvement of 1.39%. In 2007-2008, Cavite province came out on top with an MPS of 72.43% or an improvement of 19.65% percentage points from 52.78% in 2005-2006.

"Proficiency in reading leads to better scholastic performance as students are able to comprehend what they are reading," Lapus said.

In SY 2007-2008, Marinduque got the highest improvement of 19.48% followed by Gapan City in Nueva Ecija with an increment of 19.35%. Other schools divisions with more than 9 percentage point increase include Tangub City, Pangasinan II, Pampanga, and Negros Oriental.

The most notable performance in terms of increment among the low performing schools was achieved in Iloilo province where the MPS went up from 44.76 in 2005-2006 to 67.15 in 2007-2008 or an improvement of 22.39.

Equally impressive is the performance of Misamis Oriental which registered an MPS of 70.28 in 2007-2008 from 49.31 in 2005-2006. A significant observation in this group is the latitude of improvement in nine schools divisions which ranged from 10.01 to 22.39.

The Library Hubs help in solving the inadequacy of supplementary reading materials in public schools. In 2004 to 2006, the first 35 Hubs were set up nationwide. Also in 2006, another 35 Hubs were established with P60 million fund from the national government. Another 35 Hubs were set up in 2007 with P50 million fund. In 2008, 40 Hubs were inaugurated with P60 million allocation from the national budget.

Along with this was the distribution of Supplementary Reading Materials in all the Hubs which teachers use as reference materials for different subject areas. To date, there are 176 local titles and 98 foreign titles with 1,555,340 total number of copies.

The Hubs also improve the knowledge of the teachers on reading strategies using Library Hub books.

Another value-added of the library hub is that teachers are able to learn bar coding and cataloguing by attending seminar-workshops conducted by trainors from the National Library, University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University.

Lapus explained that teacher-librarians may borrow plastic bins of books and keep these bins in the school library. "This encourages students to visit their library, enjoy reading story books and make reading a habit," he said