Nearly P9 billion allocated in the 2026 national budget will be used to expand the Department of Education’s learning recovery efforts, aimed at addressing persistent gaps in reading proficiency among Filipino students.

Under the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program, learners in Grades 3 to 6 improved their reading readiness by an average of five points, while students in Grades 7 to 10 posted gains of between six and nine points, based on the Department of Education’s Middle of School Year Assessments.

These improvements translate to about 3.42 million Grades 3 to 6 learners and 1.72 million students in Grades 7 to 10 moving closer to grade-level reading proficiency.

"Part of the historic funding we have allocated for the education sector this year is full support for the implementation of the ARAL Program," Sherwin Gatchalian said in Filipino.

"This is an important step to help us overcome the education crisis that we have been facing for a long time," Gatchalian added.

Under the 2026 national budget, P8.96 billion has been earmarked for the ARAL Program, which aims to engage 440,000 tutors and reach 6.7 million learners in School Year 2026–2027.

However, regional assessments continue to show learning gaps. Results from the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) revealed that Grade 5 Filipino students lag behind their regional peers in reading, with 27 percent assessed as having “very low proficiency.”

The assessment found that many students struggle with basic reading tasks, such as matching words to pictures, highlighting persistent challenges in foundational literacy. Only 14 percent of Filipino Grade 5 students reached high proficiency in reading, placing the Philippines second to last among participating countries.

The Philippines trails Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Cambodia in reading proficiency.