The Department of Education's (DepEd) “Catch-up Fridays” will commence in public elementary and high schools nationwide today, January 12, as announced by its spokesperson Michael Poa.
"Catch-up Friday" is a program that aims to improve learners' performance by designating Friday of the week a reading day.
Speaking to reporters in a press briefing at the Malacañang on Thursday, January 11, Poa said the memorandum containing the program's implementing guidelines had been issued.
“Nag-present tayo sa pangulo [Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos] ng ating ways forward. The theme was really how do we improve, not only our PISA performance, but the overall performance of our learners in basic education [...] Binigyan din natin ng pansin yung catch-up Fridays, na sisimulan na natin sa January 12, we issued the guidelines last night," he said.
According to the DepEd spox, the "Catch-up Friday" will not just focus on reading.
"There will also be values, peace competencies as well as health. Doon papasok ang lessons na pwede natin ituro sa ating mga students pagdating sa mental health at bullying," he added.
Filipino students remain among the weakest in math, reading, and science in the world, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results released in December 2023.
The PISA study conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development showed that the reading literacy score in the country in 2022 stood at 347 points.
The figure increased from the 340 points recorded in 2018, but this remained below the 476 global average reading score.
