An overview of the results of a nationally-representative Early Grade Reading Study conducted in 2019 in the Philippines. The full report is available.

This study explores the extent to which mother-tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE), as implemented at scale in the Philippines, is having an impact on students’ reading and writing skills in English and Filipino at the end of Grade 3. This 2019 study repeats a 2013 study that evaluated the reading skills of a representative sample of students from across the Philippines using an Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) carried out by RTI, the Philippines Department of Education (DepEd), and a local research firm. In both cases, the study was administered by RTI-trained assessors made up of local education authorities and professional survey researchers. For the 2013 study, the Grade 3 students assessed had completed lower primary under the pre-MTB-MLE curriculum, which used only English and Filipino as the medium of instruction. For this 2019 study, the Grade 3 students had 3 years of learning under the MTB-MLE curriculum, which was designed to teach lower primary students in their mother-tongue language before transitioning into learning in Filipino and English as mediums of instruction in upper primary. [508 Compliant version to be updated].