Closing the Gap: Remedial Programmes in Maths and English for Grade 11 Students in Schools for Low-income Families

PHINMA Education Network (PEN) consists of four tertiary schools situated in different parts of the Philippine Islands, namely Pangasinan, Cabanatuan, Iloilo and Cagayan De Oro. In line with PEN’s advocating “Make Lives Better” for the Filipino people, these four schools serve families who are mostly of low socio-economic status and make education available to everyone by allowing students to enrol without requiring them to take an entrance examintion. Coming from families with low incomes, the students face many challenges in order to at least meet the minimum standards expected for their grade level. Because of these challenges, PEN started a Student Success Programme to make every effort to support them and make resources available to ensure that students become successful in school.

Based on the results of the Asian Psychological Services and Assessment (APSA) given to incoming Grade 11 students in PEN schools, about 80% of them do not meet the minimum standards in Maths and English. This necessitated the creation of remedial programmes in these subjects as part of the Student Success Programme. The study is two-fold, involving (1) the provision of teacher training; and (2) the implementation of the remedial programmes. The remedial programmes use homogenous ability groupss, individual tracking systems, and self-assessment tools in a classroom setting. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes in getting the students to master the competencies in Maths and English expected at Grade 11 by comparing their pre-test and post-test scores. In addition, the students’ study skills, self-assessment, and peer-coaching skills were measured through their responses on activity sheets.