CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The K-12 system was signed into law with the passage of the Enhanced Basic

Education Act of 2013 or Republic Act 10533. This gave birth to different tracks and

strands which can be explored either in preparation for college education or employment.

One of these strands is the Humanities and Social Science Strand or Simply HUMSS,

which is under the Academic Track. It is where students can explore a deeper dive into

Literature, Communication and the Social Science. The HUMSS Strand is designed for

those who ponder what is on the other side of the wall. In other words, you are ready to

take on the world and talk to a lot of people. This is for those who are considering talking

up journalism communication arts, liberal art, education and other social science-related

courses in college.1 This strand may require preparations starting from the learner’s early

learning habits. The four macro skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening, combined

with interpreting and relating of ideas were fundamental skills in this strand, developing

these skills are all great help for aspiring HUMSS students.

The HUMSS Strand has been incorporated with a lot of talking and reading. That

is where literacy comes in. In this study, we are assessing the readiness of grade 10

students in taking the HUMSS strand for senior high school based on their literacy level,

which will be assessed using various tests. This might help them prepare for senior high

school as they can identify which particular areas they still have to improve when it

comes to literacy.
 Literacy can be seen as backbone of communication since it may include both

written and oral language. It also an essential set of skills to acquire and a right for every

citizen to be fulfilled. Literacy may actually influence the development of the society as

literacy is the backbone of communication and that communication is an essential tool for

information dissemination, self-expression, policy implementation and in regulating the

citizen’s actions. These are all vital in a developing country like ours.

Literacy was traditionally defined as the quality or state of being able to read and

write. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2021). However, it can be defined more elaborately

as the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively

and make sense of the world.2

About 91.6% percent of Filipinos 10-64 years old were functional literate in 2019

according to the results of the 2019 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media

Survey (FLEMMS). This translates to around 73.7 million total Filipinos of the same

age.3 This however, is lower compared to its neighboring countries like Indonesia with

93.4%, Vietnam with 94.5%, Thailand with 96.7%, and Singapore with 97.05% in 2016.

This opens up the initiative of the country to produce globally competitive and skilled

citizens. One effort that could be seen is the passing of K-12 Enhanced Basic Education

Curriculum for the country. The numbers corresponding the literacy of the countries may

reflect the development of that particular country. More developed countries tend to have

high literacy rates hovering from 98% up to 100%. While the underdeveloped ones have

significantly lower literacy rates. This can be drawn since most countries with high

literacy were countries from North America, Europe, Australia, and Middle East, which

composes developed countries. While those from South America, Africa, and some
portions of Asia have lower literacy level and are mainly composed of developing and

underdeveloped countries

Lacking vital skills in literacy skills will hold any person back at every stage of

his or her life. As a child, these people lacking vital literacy skills might find it hard to

excel at school or do not even perform fairly at all. Being an adult, it will be really

difficult for them to participate in the job market, influencing the employment rates of the

country. As parents, they will not be able to support their own child’s learning or even

growing up as a whole. Thus, producing another generation of citizens having trouble

with their literacy level and a country having tough combatting illiteracy.

Illiteracy is still an existing problem on a national level. The remaining 8.4% of

79.7 Million Filipinos in 2019 were bound to participate in most societal affairs.

Specifically speaking to the youths who study in the public schools. The rates of non-

readers continued to increase especially now that there are no face-to-face classes in most

primary schools in the country. In the recent years, a lot of junior high school teachers

have expressed alarm after discovering that many of their students do not know how to

read. That is starting from students that age at least 12 years old. That is significantly

later than what The World Bank stated that children should be able to read at age 10 since

reading is gateway for learning other areas such as math, science, and the humanities. 4

This could be seen rooting however, with DepEd imposing “zero dropout” in its “no child

left behind” policy.5 With the current assessment system, teachers and schools have high

ratings despite a lower quality of education. This problem could even go on and continue

up to the senior high school. This what we have to address. The growing rate of illiteracy

in the higher levels of education.

not simply defined as the ability to read and write. Literacy is not a single concept such

that people are either “literate” or “illiterate” or even “functionally literate” or

“functionally illiterate” instead literacy is dynamic or multifaceted concept that varies by

concept. Individual may be “literate” in one sense when they graduate from school. For

instance, they may be able to read, write and compute. But notions of literacy change

over time and vary by situation. (Dr. Rothwell & Brandenburg, “The workplace Literacy

Primer”, 1990)

The problem with literacy can be identified and addressed by assessing the

student’s literacy before being promoted to a higher educational level. This can help the

learners and the teachers whether they are ready for a higher level of education

particularly in Senior High School. The school must be decisive to produce globally

competent graduates that will soon participate in the job market.

As learners and future leaders, we must acquire not only the awareness of these

problems but also the initiative to take part and be the solution. In this research, the

student’s literacy level will be assessed to come up with reliable conclusion and possible

solutions to help the incoming grade 11 HUMSS Students combat this reoccurring

problem with illiteracy particularly during this pandemic, where distant learning is seen

as an alternative for traditional in-person teaching where teachers can monitor their

students more efficiently while in the schools.

This research aims to test the level of literacy-based preparedness of the incoming

grade 11 HUMSS student of Tandaay High School in preparation for senior high school.

Specifically, this aims to answer the following assumptions:

1. What is the demographic profile of the students in terms of:

A. Age

B. Sex

C. Section

2. What is the literacy level of Grade 10 students of Tandaay High School?

[Link] are the possible recommendations that can be proposed to aid the students in their

literacy level?

Significance of the Study

This study measuring the level of literacy-based preparedness in HUMSS strand

of Grade 10 students of Tandaay High School considers into accounts that the results of

this research will be beneficial to the following:

Incoming Grade 11 HUMSS Students: In this research the junior high school students

who considers taking the HUMSS strand will be able to test their readiness for senior

high school through literacy assessment. This will help them determine whether they are

ready to take the HUMSS strand or not. This will also help us to know what further

preparations that they would need for senior high school. In this way, they will not be
over whelmed by the possible challenges that awaits, especially those that concern

literacy

Teachers: This study can help the teacher determine how prepared their student are to

take the HUMSS Strand. They will also know what preparations that they would still

need to settle for the student and if they would have to change their approach and method

in teaching the students considering their literacy level.

School Administrations: This study will help determine and identify the existing

problems regarding the student’s literacy in the school. Thus, making it possible to

address it and make possible solutions.

Family of the Students: This research will help the families to have idea of how the

student performs in the school which will enable them to consider possible solutions for

problems regarding the student’s literacy and take those into action at home.

Researchers: This study will improve our awareness of the current literacy level of our

fellow students who plans to take the HUMSS Strand and devise a possible method in

aiding them.

Future Researchers: This research can serve as future reference of our fellow

researchers who wish to conduct studies about the same on a related topic for academic

purposes in the future.

Scope and Delimitation

preparedness in HUMSS strand of selected Grade 10 Students of Tandaay High School. It

will be conducted in Tandaay High School, Tandaay, Nabua, Camarines Sur starting

from January 2022 to June 2022 and will have the Grade 10 Students from the

aforementioned school who will take the HUMSS Strand in Senior High School as its

primarily subjects.

The respondents will be limited to at least 30 students who will answer the survey

and literacy assessment questionnaire. So that we can firstly, look at the profile of the

students such as age, sex, section, reading habit and parent’s educational attainment.

Then, we can assess their literacy level through the questionnaire that will be distributed

through Google Forms and Facebook Messenger App. Lastly, we will be basing on the

results to draw a conclusion and come up with a recommendation to help the students

based on the data that we gathered.

Theoretical Framework

Recognizing the complexity of communication process. The researchers used it to

explain it and understand the elements and their respective contribution to the process.

Theories supporting the Development of Literacy these Developmental Theories

help the educations to come up with the approach and methods that best suits for every

learner of every age. These will smoothen up the process of learning and make use of the

resources efficiently.

1. Theory of Cognitive Development – by Jean Piaget. Children actively construct

knowledge based on their environment they create internal mental structures to

development stages namely: Sensorimotor, from birth to 2 years where children

experience the world through their primary senses; Preoperational, 2 to 7 years where the

child acquires the ability to internally represent the world through language and visual

imagery; Concrete Operational, from 7 to 11 years old where the child becomes able to

think logically; and Formal Operational, from 11 years up to adulthood where they can

already think systematically. This theory helps determine the operational approach for

learning in each stage. This also provides us with the idea that children gradually grow,

and by their stage of formal operational development,

they should be able to consider hypothetical situations, think systematically, reason about

abstract concept and understand ethics and scientific reasoning. It is where the age group

of the grade 10 students belongs.

2. Sociocultural Learning Theory- by Lev Vygotsky. The social aspect of learning

construction is emphasized in children. Vygotsky believed that cognitive growth was a

result of interactions between people. After which a child internalized learning.

According to this theory children learn most effectively by engaging meaningfully with

someone who is more experienced. This theory also introduced the concept of the Zone

of Proximal Development which is the distance between the actual developmental level

as determined by the independent problem solving and the level of potential development

as determined through problem solving (Vygotsky, 1986, pg. 86). It is simply a division

between what the child can and cannot do on their own with the things that they can do

with the help or assistance from others in the middle.

capacity to analyze, critique and transform social, cultural and political texts and context

by having a thorough understanding of the experiences of the children (Freire, 1985). It

points out that in order to truly reach the students, the teachers must be aware of the

child’s problems, aspirations and struggles and also acknowledges that teachers have the

power to send implicit messages about the importance and meaning of some information

above others. This helps the teachers to consider the balance in the learning environment

and the student’s learning experiences. It allows the students to actively synthesize,

analyze and interpret the texts you have read or listened to, by themselves.

These theories support the concept of Literacy Development of learners from

early age to late adolescence, which in turn, will be assessed in order to determine level

of preparedness in taking the HUMSS strand among the grade 10 students of Tandaay

High School. By relating them, we can point out that the grade 10 students who serves as

the main subject of this study, are under the age group of 14-16 which falls into the

formal operational stage of cognitive development in accordance on Piaget’s theory.

Students of those age are expected to be able to tell the difference between their own

perspective and the perspective of others as well as to think logically and perform

operations on objects that are only imagined. At this point, we can say that they have

already met quite a few more experienced people like the personnel of the school for

example. This should mean that they have acquired considerable amount of knowledge

based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory. This may also allow the students to do

a lot of things on their own as the teachers truly understands them by now.
 Figure 1
Theoretical Paradigm

The three theories all supports the concept of literacy development which serves

as the foundation of this study. The literacy level of the respondents will be determined
through an assessment, which will serve as the basis I determining the level of

preparedness in taking the HUMSS strand for senior high school among the

respondents.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual paradigm is shown in figure 1 through the flow of system of input,

process, and output mechanism. The different activities throughout the study will be

discussed

FEEDBACK

Figure 2
Conceptual Paradigm
 The conceptual framework represented by the paradigm in the previous page

follows the I-P-O mechanism format.

• Input. It includes all the variables present in the research questions which will be

the basis for the data to be used in the study such as: profile of the respondent in terms of

age, sex, reading habits and parent's educational attainment, the literacy level of the

students, the different reasons of increasing and decreasing literacy level of students and

the level of literacy-based preparedness of Grade 10 students in taking the HUMSS

Strand.

• Process. It includes the processes used and involved in the study. Consisting of

creating, distributing and collecting of questionnaires and other data as well as the data

analyzing and interpreting procedures.

• Output. The expected results of the study and possible recommendations in what

to do with the findings. It includes proposing solution which will help the students in

their literacy- based preparation in HUMSS Strand. In form of inspirational talks,

distribution of reading materials and volunteering in Brigada sa Pagbasa.

• Feedback. A space is allotted for future revisions or changes that will be done

with the paradigm if used as a future reference for study.

Assumptions of the study

1. The students have varied profiles.

2. The students have different levels of literacy.

Strand.

4. The possible solution that we can propose is the distribution of reading materials

and volunteering with Brigada Pagbasa.

Definition of Terms:

HUMSS Strand- shortened form of Humanities and Social Sciences one of the four

strands in senior high school under the Academic Track, which is the chosen strand of the

respondents.

Literacy- traditionally defined as “the ability to read and write”.

Literacy-Based Preparedness- the level of preparedness in talking the HUMSS Strand

of Grade 10 students based on their literacy level, which will be assessed through various

tests.

Literacy Test- a series of tests used to assess one’s literacy level.

Nonreader- students who are unable to recognize and sound out letter-sound connections

for some consonant ad vowel blends in simple one-word.

[Link]

social-sciences-strand
2
What is Literacy?, National Literacy Trust, [Link] (2021)

[Link]
3
Functional Literacy Rate is Estimated at 91.6 Percent in 2019, Philippine Statistics

Authority, [Link] (2020) [Link]

estimated-916-percent-2019
4
De Vera B., WB: 9 out of 10 kids age 10 can’t read, [Link] (2021)

[Link]
5
Joy, DepEd Told to Stop Sending Non-readers to High School, Change Teacher’s

Assessment System, [Link] (2022) [Link]

stop-sending-non-readers-to-high-school-change-teachers-assessment-system/
References:

Book

1. Dr. Rothwell, W. and Dr. Brandenburg, D., Workplace Literacy Primer an Action

Manual for Training and Development Professionals, (1990)

Websites

1. Merriam Webster: [Link]

2. Literacytrust: [Link]

3. Literacytogether: [Link]

4. [Link]: [Link]

5. Philippine Statistics Authority: [Link]

6. World Atlas: [Link]

7. Buhay Teacher: [Link]

8. [Link]: [Link]