INTRODUCTION

People’s survival and satisfaction in today’s age of information explosion depend largely on their ability
to read and write proficiently and critically. More than basic reading and writing, literacy today must be
viewed more broadly to mean” … the use of reading and writing to achieve… personal expression,
enjoyment, learning, understanding, insight communication, survival and cultural participation”
(Hermosa, 1991:16).

The department of education urged the teachers to continue exerting efforts that will help instil the
value of reading among their pupils and students. DepEd said that continuing activities geared towards
reading should be conducted by teachers in both public and private schools (Hernando-Malipot, 2018).

Reading is one of the most important ways of learning, as it is connected with literacy and civilizational
development as well, since 2008, a growing number of developing countries are assessing the reading
skills of pupils in the early grades of primary school (UNESCO). This is to show how important is this
activity on personal achievement as well as on society as a whole, And any ignorance of this vital activity
especially in the early ages means many learning problems, “pupils who are not able to read do not have
the prerequisite skills for successful learning in later grades.

Reading is a complex is a “complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive
meaning. It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and
ideas”. Reading is an activity with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify
existing knowledge’s, or in order to critique a writer’s ideas or writing style. A person may also read for
enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. Among the Grade 1 pupils, reading is a
vital skill to learn for them to understand the lessons, and make sense of the words around them. It is a
primary skill they must acquire to achieve different learning competencies. Reading allows them to
access the breadth of the curriculum and improve their communication and language skills. It starts with
the phonemic awareness instruction which typically spans from kindergarten and first grade. Oral
activities which put emphasis on tasks that are more advanced, focusing on blending, segmentation and
substitution and manipulation of phonemes. When pupils are faced with reading multisyllable words, it
is extremely helpful that they are familiar with the different syllable types or patterns. They will then
have strategies to divide such word into its syllables, and from there to blend the syllables so they can
pronounce the whole word.

The battle against non-readers in schools can only be won by creating and implementing reading
programs that will generate self-propelling and productive pupils (Hiebert and Colt, 1989; Tunnel and
Jacobs, 1989). This makes way to various reading programs of Department of education, and one of
them is the EGRA.

The early grade reading assessment (EGRA) was created to provide a reliable and valid measure of skills
that contribute to reading acquisition. Developed in 2006, EGRA has since been adapted for use in more
than 65 countries and in over 100 languages. EGRA can be used as a system-level progress mintoring
tool or for programme evaluation purpose. EGRA is not an intervention or a curriculum nor it is a perfect
assessment. More broadly than the specific subtasks that measures discreet skills. EGRA, as a whole,
offers several purposes. One, it can serve as a baseline of early reading acquisition, two, it can guide the
content that is included in an instructional programme. Third, EGRA can evaluate programmes. Because
of its informed theoretical framework and consistent procedures, EGRA provides valid and reliable
information for each of the purposes described, furthermore, EGRA provides a common language to
discuss to children’s literacy abilities; when presenting the results on the passage reading subtask, we
have means to understand the extent to which the children can handle grade-level text.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This paper seeks to assess the extent of the reading skills of the Grade 1 pupils of T’boyung Elementary
School using Early Grade Assessment (EGRA) with the association of identifying pupils that can blend
and syllabicate.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The researcher will be extending the gathered information to the
following beneficiaries:

Classroom Teachers. This research will help teachers identify pupils

who need extra attention in reading than the others. In addition, the grade 1
adviser will be able to determine how to fairly divide the class into groups
when it comes to remedial reading. And lastly, Coordinator of the so called
newly established program of DepEd the Care for Non-reader, will be able
to determine new individuals to be added to the list of pupils who need
reading remediation.

Parents. This study will provide information to the parents with

regards to their children’s reading level so that they can join in the
monitoring of the pupils reading activities.
 School Heads. The administrator will be able to establish approaches
towards reading. Implement activities inside the school regarding the
importance of reading programmes and reading centers.

Policy Makers. They will have an insight on how they can extend a
helping hand to the school in improving its activities related to the
improvement of reading of the pupils of T’boyung ES.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION

Considering the nature of the study, the sample size is small. Secondly, it
represents only a fraction of the students in particular Grade in T’boyung Elementary
School and thus is not suited to be extrapolated to the whole pupils’ population without
undertaking a comprehensive large scale survey. Lastly, the researcher has chosen
only one dependent variable which is the reading level of the Grade 1 pupils; therefore
this does not generalize the overall performance of the pupil in the school.