The Coca-Cola Company

Encouraging Filipino Children To Read

June 16, 2006 edition

Teachers from the Little Red School House (LRSH) Program of the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc. (CCFPI) recently gathered for the 4th Coke-Petron-SAS Teacher Training Workshop.

The workshop was held May 19-21 to educate teachers about innovative methods for improving reading comprehension among elementary students. During the seminar, participants received a reading package to be distributed at their schools, consisting of more than 60 children’s storybooks that teach family values and the importance of reading.

The books are written by Filipino authors, as local literature is often more appealing and enjoyable to children because it talks about experiences to which they can relate. The books are also bilingual -- the children can read the Filipino text while being exposed to the same text in English. This enables them to go back and forth between the texts and the languages, enhancing their English language skills.

The training and the books that the teachers received are being used to implement a month-long Read-a-thon reading program in their schools, during which the CCFPI and the schools are working in close collaboration to encourage more children to develop their reading skills. At the end of the program, the school children will be allowed to demonstrate their new reading skills with entertaining presentations, narrations and acting skits.