A TOTAL of 449 tutors and youth development workers have participated in the implementation of the Department of Social Welfare and Development or DSWD’s Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program in Cebu and Lanao del Sur.

DSWD Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao confirmed that a new batch of 242 tutors and YDWs, including tutors from the Cebu Normal University have joined the training.

The training in Cebu was led by the DSWD’s Social Technology Bureau and Field Office-7, in cooperation with the Ateneo Center for Educational Development and the Department of Education.

In Mindanao, 207 students from Mindanao State University joined the training from April 1 to 3 in Marawi City to prepare them for their teaching roles in June.

The students-tutors will teach grade schoolers experiencing difficulty in reading or are non-readers in Madrasas and Torils, and learners in formal education, in Marawi City and Taraka, Lanao del Sur.

During the opening session, DSWD Field Office-10 Assistant Regional Director for Administration Salmah Basher emphasized the significant role that college students will play in fostering positive change and promoting peace advocacy within the region.

“You will be contributing not only to the educational learning and improvement of the children but also to making them future change agents and peace advocates,” Basher said.

Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program is the DSWD’s reformatted educational assistance that creates a learning ecosystem, wherein college students will be capacitated and deployed as tutors and YDWs to help improve the reading proficiency of elementary students who are struggling to read or are non-readers.

The tutors and YDWs, in return, will receive a regionally-accepted minimum wage to support their educational needs.