Philippines EGRA four language study – 2015 follow-on

This study was implemented as a collaborative effort between RTI (Task Order 15: Data for Education Programming in Asia and Middle East); EDC (USAID/Basa) and the Philippines Department of Education. Samples of 30 to 40 teachers and 375 to 400 students per grade were drawn in each of the four regions – Region I, Region VI, Region VII, and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) – from schools that were pre-identified as teaching in the target languages, respectively Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Cebuano, and Maguindanaoan. The completion of an Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) in four mother tongues in the Philippines for a second consecutive year enables the Department of Education (DepED) to examine how the implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based, Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) initiative is progressing. The 2015 survey, like the 2014 one, used the information from teacher interviews and classroom observations to construct an index that covers three areas of MTB-MLE: Teacher preparation and ability to provide instruction in the mother tongue; Availability and use of a diversity of MTB-MLE materials; and Instructional practice and the use of time during mother-tongue reading lessons. Conclusions and recommendations from this report were developed during a policy dialogue workshop held in August 2015 in the Philippines and included stakeholders from central and regional levels.