Microsoft has expanded capabilities in its Reading Progress tool to include the Filipino (Tagalog) language. This is now available to the 27 million students and 950,000 teachers within the Department of Education’s (DepEd) nationwide system.

Microsoft’s Reading Progress is a free application built into Microsoft Teams and is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to support and track students’ reading fluency, specifically reading accuracy, speed, and pronunciation.  The tool works on all platforms, including Desktop, Mac, web, iOS, and Android.

“The availability of Filipino and local dialects in the Reading Progress tool will empower all our students to develop strong literacy skills for success in and beyond the classroom,” said Clarissa Segismundo, Education Programs head, Microsoft Philippines. “Microsoft will continue to introduce innovations and support the education sector to create sustainable impact toward skilling the nation and its future workforce.”

Microsoft equips 23 million students in DepEd network with reading progress tool
Microsoft designed education solutions to help create holistic learning environment

Reading Progress is now available to all DepEd regions across the Philippines, delivering critical reading skills, both online and in face-to-face environments.

Innovations that empower educators and students

The Reading Progress tool was designed to enable teachers to connect with students on an individual level and identify opportunities for differentiated instruction. With functions such as assignment review, teachers can collect valuable data and Education Insights dashboards that help visualize class and individual performance and growth. These innovations have empowered educators to deliver lessons in a more engaging way and track students’ progress.

According to DepEd, students need to develop a strong foundation in their mother language before effectively learning additional languages. Research also shows that children learning in their mother tongue adopt a better understanding of the curriculum. The new features in the Reading Progress tool and its availability to all public-school students and teachers will help in implementing DepEd’s Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) program.

A report in 2020 by the DepEd Region V found around 40,000 grade school students struggling to read after taking both Filipino and English tests. With the new features now available in the Reading Progress tool, DepEd and Microsoft are confident in improving students’ Filipino reading skills.

Microsoft is working closely with DepEd to deploy and fully leverage the Reading Progress tool in schools across the country to support the education sector in delivering critical skills and preparing Filipino learners for the future.