Philippines begins New Zealand literacy intervention

The University of Auckland has sealed an agreement to help the Philippines improve children’s reading and writing levels.

The agreement, negotiated through the university’s commercial arm, UniServices, is for the Faculty of Education to provide guidance and advice on the implementation of Reading Recovery.

Several regions in the Philippines will use the internationally successful Reading Recovery, developed at The University of Auckland 30 years ago by Dame Prof. Marie Clay.

Reading Recovery is a research-based early literacy intervention which has successfully decreased reading and writing difficulties among children in NZ. It has been exported to most of the world’s English speaking countries.

This is the first time it will be used in a South East Asian country.

“The system is of tremendous benefit in helping children get underway with literacy,” says Dr Blair Koefoed of the Faculty of Education, who is also a member of NZ’s National Reading Recovery Trainer team.

“Reading Recovery gives children who are beginning to fall behind in their reading and writing in their classroom a second chance with some individual teaching. It is like an insurance policy for children who need a little extra help to get underway with literacy.”

Dr Koefoed adds the Philippines will present a new challenge to Reading Recovery, because the education system is officially bi-lingual, and more than 170 languages are spoken across the country.

Reading Recovery will be introduced in English, the main medium of instruction for core subjects in the Philippines.

Five Filipino scholars are completing Reading Recovery training courses at the Faculty of Education, funded by NZAID this year.

Two of the scholars will begin the expansion of the programme in June 2011 by setting-up Reading Recovery graduate training in the Philippines. The remaining three will begin working directly with teachers in schools next year.

Up to five more scholars will come to NZ next year to study as Reading Recovery educators.
The agreement was officially signed between the Philippines secretary of education Jesli Lapus and witnessed by the NZ ambassador to the Philippines Andrew Matheson in Pasig City last month.

The agreement is for five years, and will be reviewed after three.