Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna announced that the city government of Manila will be embarking on programs that will improve the reading comprehension among the young citizens of the city.
The lady mayor thus enjoined the support of barangay officials to ensure the success of the programs that will be spearheaded by the Division of City Schools headed by Superintendent Magdalena Lim and the Manila City Library (MCL), which will bring its library services straight to the people through the barangays, via mobile libraries.
Lacuna said the programs are aimed at encouraging the youngsters in Manila to engage in reading, while noting pronouncements made recently by Senator Ralph Recto that the Philippines ranks last among 79 countries when it comes to reading comprehension.
The lady mayor also tasked the MCL to visit other cities for purposes of benchmarking, saying there is nothing wrong with copying if it will be for the good of the city’s operations of its 11 libraries.
“Di naman masama manggaya lalo na kung maganda. Ganundin sa lungsod, lahat ng maganda ating ginagaya para maibigay ang tamang serbisyo sa mga batang Maynila. Ganundin naman ang ibang lungsod, napunta rin sila sa atin for bechmarking,” the mayor added.
The low reading comprehension ranking of the country, Lacuna added, is such a big challenge for the city’s learning institutions and libraries for them to create programs that would improve the children’s reading comprehension and even writing skills.
Such low ranking, she said, may also be attributed to the pandemic and thus, appealed to barangay authorities to help and support the city as it launches programs that would improve the reading comprehension of the city’s young populace. (Baby Cuevas)
