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Tag: National Alliance of Reading Advocates

  • NBDB’S ALLIANCE OF READING ADVOCATES PUSH FOR A THREE-POINT AGENDA TO PROMOTE READERSHIP

    NBDB’S ALLIANCE OF READING ADVOCATES PUSH FOR A THREE-POINT AGENDA TO PROMOTE READERSHIP

    NBDB’s National Alliance of Reading Advocates (NARA) recently launched its 2025-2030 Agenda: Building a Reading Philippines from the Ground Up after a successful first year run

    MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The National Book Development Board’s National Alliance of Reading Advocates (NARA) is pushing to promote access and reading of Philippine books in the country. 

    In its State of the Reading Nation Address (SORNA) for the first semester of this year, NARA presented its progress in its 2025-2030 Agenda to further promote the access and reading of Philippine books by expanding access, foundational skills, and remediation through community-driven solutions, sustained partnerships, and scaling up of effective models. 

    “The NBDB continues to push for a stronger national readership by mobilizing its allies from around the country. The reading gap that we have now–as we have learned from recent surveys–deserves our immediate attention and action,” said NBDB Executive Director Charisse Aquino-Tugade. “This is exactly why we formed NARA: to mobilize both the public and private sectors in reversing this reading gap. It’s about responding to the issue at hand now, all while nurturing the next generations of readers.” 

    NARA is a project of the NBDB’s Readership Development Division, composed of 152 readership advocates and serves as an integral part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to boost the love for reading in the country. The alliance covers schools, universities, national government agencies, local government units, non-profit and small-scale organizations, and advocacy arms of corporations.

    NARA’s Best Practices

    “NARA has been instrumental in connecting us with partners who support our mission and advocacy at the center. The NBDB provided valuable insights, including notes on monthly surveys for book requests, a book return policy, and a library etiquette or code of conduct,” said Natalie Tabayan, Co-Lead of Better World Smokey Mountain (BWSM), an effort of AHA! Learning Center, which is one of NARA’s active members. 

    AHA! Learning Center is a non-profit organization that launched a reading campaign in Tondo, Manila last year to cultivate the love for reading and establish consistent reading habits among BWSM’s students. The initiative is an empathy-informed learning system, offering academic and social-emotional interventions for children, as well as support system skills development for parents and teachers. 

    With the help of other network members, AHA! Learning Center has significantly increased its collection of Filipino storybooks and improved its book spaces by adding more shelves, posters, and designs. It even established a dedicated reading corner for mothers, stocked with Filipino pocket books, Liwayway magazines, and other local fiction books. 

    “Through the NARA network, the Corazon Sanchez Atayde Memorial Foundation (CSAMF) had the opportunity to connect with like-minded organizations nationwide—sharing best practices, exchanging insights, and fostering meaningful collaborations in literacy development,” shared Rylene Ngeta-a, CSAMF’s Program Director, an active NARA member.

    Over the past year, the organization has reached 910 learners who are either struggling or have the least access to reading support from different areas such as Pasig City, Tawi-Tawi, Rizal Province, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Mountain Province. 

    Ngeta-a emphasized that through NARA members’ shared innovations, authors, writers, and readers in many areas have deeper engagement with Philippine books. 

    The NBDB’s Alliance of Reading Advocates Push for a Three-Point Agenda to Promote Readership was announced on July 25, 2025 in NBDB’s Press Release.

    REFERENCE & MEDIA CONTACT:

    For inquiries, please contact: 

    Divine Reyes Caraecle

    Communications & Promotions Section

    communications@books.gov.ph

    0917-1396394

  • 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬’ 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬

    The National Book Development Board (NBDB) believes that the determination of reading advocates in the Philippines remains strong despite the current challenges facing the state of reading in the country.

    The State of the Reading Nation Address (SORNA) for the second quarter of this year was presented during the inaugural Milestone Meeting of the National Alliance of Reading Advocates (NARA). This initiative, a project of the NBDB, brings together numerous readership advocates and plays a crucial role in the NBDB’s ongoing efforts to foster a love for reading in the Philippines.

    The second-quarter SORNA highlighted three key areas: the importance of community engagement and support networks, the necessity of teacher training and professional development, and the critical issue of access to resources and materials.

    “To address these vital points, advocates and stakeholders across government, non-government, and private sectors are working tirelessly to rekindle a love for reading among Filipino adults and children and to prevent a reading crisis,” emphasized Daniel Lorenzo Mariano, OIC of NBDB’s Readership Development Division (READ).

    Established in the second quarter, the NARA and its members are collaboratively working to enhance Philippine readership. In April, the NBDB hosted the second edition of its flagship event, the Philippine Book Festival (PBF), a four-day fair attended by over 30,000 people. This event also served as the platform for the soft launch of NARA. The all-Filipino book fair aims to promote a culture of reading and simultaneously support the growth of the publishing industry in the country.

    In response to the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, which underscored the need to address literacy and reading issues, the Department of Education (DepEd) has adopted a science-based approach to teaching reading. Stakeholders are hopeful that the incoming DepEd chief, Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, will advocate for reading and address the country’s literacy challenges.

    In collaboration with DepEd, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is promoting a reading mindset through its nationwide tutoring program, “Tara, Basa.” This initiative has trained thousands of student-tutors and youth development workers to conduct reading sessions for struggling and non-reader Grade 2 learners in public elementary schools. The program also includes “Nanay-Tatay” teacher sessions to empower parents and guardians to actively support their children’s reading journeys.

    Several Local Government Units (LGUs), along with private and non-profit organizations, have also launched their own readership development programs.

    Other efforts implemented during the second quarter aim to foster a reading culture among Filipinos and shape the country’s reading landscape.

    “The NBDB, through NARA, is working on developing a NARA Readers’ Agenda. Alongside passionate advocates such as educators, librarians, publishers, community leaders, and students, we will continue to raise our collective voice to highlight the power of reading and make it an exciting and enriching adventure,” added Mariano.

    NBDB PRESS RELEASE – 19 July 2024

    Communications and Promotions

    National Book Development Board

    View Books Philippines Catalog

    Visit the www.philippinebookfest.com

  • Reading Advocates Decry Lukewarm Reading Culture, Draft Provisional Readers’ Agenda Presented in First-of-Its-Kind Milestone Meeting

    THE National Alliance of Reading Advocates (NARA), a group composed of readership advocates in the country and a project by the National Book Development Board (NBDB), held its first important NARA Milestone Meeting recently, where the provisional outline of the NARA Readers’ Agenda was presented.

    The group also decried the lukewarm state of reading culture in the country, as shown in the country’s State of the Reading Nation (SORNA) for the second quarter of the year.

    The alliance will work collaboratively in drafting and finalizing the NARA Readers’ Agenda, and hopes to finish it in time for the grand launch on November 16, 2024. Once fully ratified, NARA will then support activities and interventions in line with its contents, and shall form the basis of the NBDB’s readership interventions for the upcoming year, both as an individual readership advocacy agency and as the NARA secretariat.

    The NARA Readers’ Agenda is a guidebook that will contain NARA’s concrete vision for readership in the Philippines based on its analysis of the state of the reading nation. In laying out advocacy areas, it will be able to concretely grasp and measure its influence on reading communities and the reading culture.

    The second quarter SORNA, meanwhile, highlighted three key points, namely, the importance of community engagement and support networks, teacher training and professional development, and the issue of access to resources and materials. It also noted that efforts to boost reading should now extend to the farthest and underserved areas of the country to boost readership and spark a love for reading.

    The National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), one of the organizations that attended the milestone meeting, earlier expressed its intention to work with the NBDB with regard to the quarterly SORNA, as expressed by NRCP Executive Director, Bernardo Sepeda, such as the provision of research assistance to NBDB members.

    The NARA is a unified network anchored on a collaborative working environment in order to better spread the news on existing readership initiatives. This is a project that serves as an integral part of the NBDB’s ongoing efforts to boost readership, given declining reading scores among Filipinos.

    Aside from the NRCP, more than 20 other organizations attended the meeting, such as the National Museum of the Philippines, National Library of the Philippines, AHA Learning Center, Ayala Foundation, Inc., St. Mary’s Publishing, Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation, Libro Mo, Kaalam Ko Project, The Inteligente Publishing, Inc., Association of Progressive and Orthodox Litterateurs and Literature Originators, Pinoy Reading Buddies, Inc., Kuwento at Kultura à Paris, St. Mary’s Publishing Corp., Pinoy Reads Pinoy Book, Laguna Province Private Schools and Administrators Association, The Storytelling Project, Iloilo Provincial Library and Archives, BINHI English Literacy Foundation, Sadiri Publishing, UST Library, International Board on Books for Young People, IBBY Ph, and Anak han Sta. Rita.

    For media inquiries, please contact: (NBDB PRESS RELEASE-12 July 2024)

    Divine Reyes-Caraecle

    NBDB Communications

    news@books.gov.ph

    0919-9749770