A 10-year reform program is needed to address the country’s education crisis, according to the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2).
Meanwhile, data released by the agency showed that Filipino students’ proficiency rates continued to decline.
“Under the program that we compiled for almost three decades, we need at least 10 years of necessary reform,” EDCOM 2 executive director Karol Mark Yee told Super Radyo dzBB on Sunday.
Yee issued the statement as EDCOM 2 prepares to submit its third and final report on Monday, Jan. 19, which also contains a national education plan.
He said that within two years, the recommendations of EDCOM 2 will begin to be implemented by the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
These recommendations include the number of additional teachers and classrooms needed on a yearly basis.
“This allows us to determine, for each year, how many teachers and classrooms are needed in order to calculate the required budget,” Yee said.
“For the next two years, EDCOM will ensure that implementation is not l lacking,” he added.
In September 2025, EDCOM 2 reported that a shortage of 165,000 classrooms nationwide is forcing kindergarteners to attend school as early as dawn or stay home.
Yee also pointed out that repeated class suspensions due to holidays, bad weather, or extreme heat disrupt students’ education, contributing to the country’s literacy crisis.
The EDCOM II findings were mustered from scores in school-based assessment tools, such as the Early Language, Literacy, and Numeracy Assessment (ELLNA) and the National Achievement Test (NAT).
Only 30.52 percent of Grade 3 learners assessed through ELLNA were registered as “proficient and highly proficient,” while the remaining 69.48 percent scored poorly.
It has since regressed as its levels fall to 0.47 percent of Grade 12 students who have aced their scores in the NAT.
“This steep trajectory of underperformance is rooted in a failure to master foundational competencies during the earliest years of schooling,” the commission’s findings noted, adding that a gap has been built due to young learners’ poor literacy skills.
People either living in disadvantaged communities or in places where schools are too far to reach worsen the present learning conditions.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “EDCOM 2 flags worsening student proficiency rates”
