Blame to 2-year closure of schools due to COVID-19

TACLOBAN CITY– About 5,209 students both in the elementary and secondary levels were identified to be ‘non-readers’ and ‘struggling learners’ by the schools division here.

And this big number of non-readers and struggling students is alarming, reason they have devised the needed intervention to at least address the ‘gap,’ Nilo Eder, the information officer of the Tacloban city schools division, said on Wednesday (Nov.6).

Based on their assessment, 79 students were identified to be non-readers or those who cannot read at all while 5,288 were classified as struggling learners or can but read but with difficulty.

Eder, however, did not say how many of the 5,288 students are in the elementary and secondary levels.

“We are conducting reading and numeracy assessments, like pre-assessments and post-assessments. This is how we identify the level of proficiency of our learners. The assessments led us in identifying the learning gaps. Correspondingly, we implement interventions to address learning gaps,” Eder said.

The intervention mostly involved a tutorial method for these students at the school level and another post-assessments are being done to determine the improvement of these students, he added.

The students identified as non-readers or struggling were from the 56 public schools in the city, both in the elementary and secondary levels.

“So far, there are significant improvements noted. However, there are still learners who need help. So we continue with our initiatives,” Eder said.

A Grade 1 teacher in one of the central schools in the city, said that out of her 25 students, almost half of them were having difficulty in reading.

“Teaching these learners is a struggle on my part as I have to give them special time and attention. So what I did was I asked my co-teacher to handle my learners who could now read as I give focus to these learners,” the teacher, who declined to be named, said.
And since she made these interventions, she is seeing some improvements in these non-reader learners, the teacher said.

Eder said that the pandemic due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that hit the country was the primary reason why this problem cropped up.

“It is a fact that the pandemic has really affected the quality of education. Thus, these learning gaps. It will take years to recover,” he said.

“Of course, we are not happy about it. We acknowledge that there is a problem to be addressed with urgency. And we are getting positive results with our initiatives. We are very optimistic we will be able to achieve the desired improvements we wish for our learners,” Eder added.

Meantime, Eder said that they are happy that the Latter-day Saint (LDS) Charities for providing some school-based tutorial materials to the 56 schools where there are non-readers and struggling students.

“We are confident that these materials will significantly contribute to the division’s ongoing efforts in addressing learning gaps exacerbated by the two-year closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Eder said.

Among the donated items by the LDS Charities were tutorial cards, whiteboards, pencils, notebooks, tubs, flash drives, worksheets, handbooks, and laminating films.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY– The long-time regional information officer of the Police Regional Office 8, Lt. Col. Ma. Bella Rentuaya, has retired from the police organization after more than two decades in service.

Rentuaya formally ended her career as a police officer in a simple and subdued retirement ceremony on December 1 held at the regional headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Palo, Leyte.

Rentuaya served as the regional information officer of the PRO-8 for eight years until her retirement. She was replaced, in an officer-in-charge capacity, by Major Marjorie Manuta.
She entered PNP in 1999 as Police Officer 1 and held various posts with the post as the regional information officer of the PRO-8 as he last assignment.

In her speech during the ceremony, Rentuaya described her 24-year journey as a police personnel as full of challenges and accomplishments.

“In my 24 years, two months and 15 days to be exact (in [police service), I have a lot of blessings to thank God for…to name a few, God has been good to me ever since because God blessed me with excellent staff wherever am assigned she said,” she said.

Rentuaya narrated that in her stint as the information officer of the PRO-8, she was ‘lucky’ to have the ‘best bosses’ who gave their full backing of the initiatives she undertook.
“I also became an instrument of blessing for the PRO-8 personnel because Damayang Otso was launched for PNP and NUP personnel with serious illnesses which to date we have 14 beneficiaries,” she said.

And in the course of her police officer, Rentuaya received some awards and recognitions.
Among these awards she reaped include the 2008 Governor Rogelio J. Espina Galing Mo Awardee as the most outstanding police commissioned officer in Biliran province; chief of police of the best municipal police station in PRO 8, 2008 (municipal level in 2007 and 2008); Sangyaw Awardee of the city government of Tacloban as most outstanding police commissioned officer in Tacloban City in 2010; and in 2007, one of the ten outstanding policewomen in the Philippines.

Rentuaya is a native of Palo, Leyte, and the youngest in a family of two siblings of Bernardino and Lilia Duque.

She is married to Senior Fire Officer III Juan Rentuaya Jr. and a proud mother of two smart and loving children, Beah Marie, a graduating student of Ateneo De Manila University, and John Rey, a freshman at Leyte Normal University.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)