Angat Kabataan San Pedro

ANGAT KABATAAN SAN PEDRO is a youth-led, non-profit, volunteer organization from in San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines that aims to empower the youth through volunteerism and leadership. We strive to be a a platform for the youth of San Pedro be instruments of change and make an impact to our community.

The Team Lead shall be the lead manager of the program. He is currently the Vice Chairperson of the organization. 

One of our organization's pillars is Education. We are well-positioned to support the project because of the program is based in the city we are living in. This program is a flagship project of the organization, and thus, will be given priority compared to all of our other responsibilities.

A community learning hub that would help children ages 5-12 develop and enhance their reading and numeracy skills.

There is a learning crisis in the Philippines. In a study conducted by the World Bank in 2019, only 10% of Filipino children age 10 can understand a simple sentence. This has worsened post-pandemic, with in-person classes being stopped for almost 2 years. During the recent school year, many children, particularly in elementary school, struggle to catch-up in their lessons because of their low level of reading ability. This problem even manifests even in the higher year levels, where many High School students still struggle to read texts competently.

To help solve this crisis, our organization is planning to establish a community learning hub in our city. This hub would be focused in providing literacy and numeracy modules for children who are non-readers and frustrated readers. We would be partnering with a local elementary school (San Vicente Elementary School) for our pilot run, and establish the hub near the area.

Partner organizations would also include Angat Pinas Inc., one of the pioneers for Community Learning Hubs in the Philippines. In order for the program to be sustainable, we are currently in talks with our city government city government to provide support and possibly lobby an ordinance that would institutionalize this program throughout our city.

Target beneficiaries of our pilot run would be Grades 1-3 students of San Vicente Elementary School who are designated as non-readers and frustrated readers according to a test formulated by the Department of Education. Our measure of success would be to get at least 90% of students per cohort to be designated as readers.

The module for the program is currently in development with the help of our volunteers and partner teachers and organizations.

The effectiveness of this solution is demonstrated by the perfmance of Community Learning Hubs by Angat Pinas Inc and other Organizations in the Philippines. The hubs have demonstrated that the Community Learning Hub model is an affective way to create measurable and sustainable improvements in the literacy, numeracy, and educational performance of their target beneficiaries.

We have not conducted research but we have conducted a pilot tutoring program for Grades 1-3 students. This program is a reading tutoring activity held after class, and is conducted by volunteers. Problems that have manifested in this program include the lack of reading material, venue availability and volunteer scheduling. The school, being a public elementary school, lacks in reading materials for our tutors, the venue is also a limiting factor because of the heat and the lack of dedicated space for reading tutoring, venue scheduling is also limited to school operating hours which excludes weekends. Our volunteers are mostly available during weekends. Thus, a dedicated community learning hub is the solution recommended upon the assessment of the project.

Although the modules for the program are currently in development, it is based on the best practices of our partner organization, Angat Pinas Inc. Engaging in a LEAP Project is the best way for us to strengthen the evidence base for the effectiveness of the modules and make our own innovations in the program that would help not just our own beneficiaries, but all the beneficiaries by other organizations in the Philippines.

1. What are the best methods to instruct children on how to read effectively.

2. Can classroom style instruction and group instruction be as effective, or nearly as effective that of 1-on-1 instruction (in order for us to make an impact to a larger number of students in a given timeframe)

3. How can we best measure the children's progress over time.

Create a module and a program plan that would effectively increase the reading skills of Filipino children ages 5-12

It will be implemented by running the pilot program of our community learning hub 

Short-term: Decrease the number of non-readers (currently 200) in San Vicente Elementary School and provide evidence-based reports of it's effectiveness.

Long-term: Institutionalize the community learning hub through lobbying a local ordinance in order for the program to be sustainable, and if possible, replicate the program to other areas.