Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said the World Bank report citing that 9 out 10 Filipino children aged 10 cannot read or understand a story is “alarming.”
Gatchalian said the lack of face-to-face classes has been linked to learning loss, with the World Bank estimating learning poverty in the country at 90.9% as of June 2022.
The World Bank also projected a decline in Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling (LAYS) from 7.5 years to 5.7 – 6.1 years, which means that 12 years of basic education would only be equivalent to around 6 years because of the pandemic’s impact.
Due to this, Gatchalian urged the enactment of the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program which he filed and sponsored.
He said the proposal will be crucial in accelerating “learning recovery,” a top priority of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.’s education agenda.
In his second State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Marcos expressed renewed hope in providing the best education to the country’s students, especially the 28.4 million learners who returned to school.
After almost two years of remote and blended learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic, full face-to-face classes resumed in public schools on November 2, 2022.
The ARAL Program Act, which the Senate already approved on third and final reading last March, seeks to address learning loss by accelerating learning recovery and mitigating the effects of the pandemic.
Gatchalian, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, said the proposed ARAL Program will give learners access to well-systematized tutorial sessions and well-designed intervention plans.