Angara cites progress in learning recovery, tech upgrades

MANILA, Philippines — Despite significant gains made by the Department of Education (DepEd) in improving the performance of students, Education Secretary Sonny Angara pressed for more support for learning recovery efforts during his visit to the Visayas on Wednesday.

Angara made the plea as he spoke before over 800 education leaders and local officials at the Literacy and Numeracy Expo in Iloilo City and later before 3,000 educators at the 1st Regional Assembly of Education Leaders in Bacolod City.

In a DepEd statement, Angara emphasized President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directive to focus on foundational learning through the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program.

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READ: Angara to strengthen ARAL program after strong first-year

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During the expo, which showcased school literacy and numeracy across Western Visayas, Angara led the launch of big books for kindergarten to grade 3 students.

Developed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Iloilo provincial government, the materials integrate circular economy principles into early education.

“That’s really what the Marcos administration wants: As early as childhood, they [students] should be taught to read, and if they have deficiencies, they can be addressed at the earliest possible opportunity,” Angara said.

“As President Bongbong Marcos said, ‘Let’s focus on the basics.’ That’s why there is the ARAL Program nationwide — so that the inability to read, which just gets carried over year after year, would no longer continue,” he added.

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Angara emphasized that learning recovery initiatives slashed the number of struggling learners nationwide, dropping from 6.7 million to 2.2 million in School Year 2025-2026.

Independent research from the global organization Youth Impact validated the success of the ARAL Program, revealing a nine-percentage-point decrease in struggling readers, equivalent to 1.37 million children lifted out of the lowest reading bracket.

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Furthermore, more than 730,000 learners reached grade-level reading proficiency, reflecting a 4.8 percent increase. To expand these gains, DepEd has launched ARAL Math this school year to complement reading interventions.

“Definitely it’s a long climb up, but the results from the ARAL Program are very encouraging. That’s only after one year, so I think after several years, we can see a system-wide and nationwide improvement in the children,” Angara said.

To sustain momentum, DepEd has requested a P15.68 billion additional allocation for the ARAL Program in the 2027 budget, which will fund honoraria for teaching overload, tutor training, external tutor compensation, summer programs, and remediation consultations.

Angara also commended local governance in Iloilo, citing it as a benchmark for effective educational decentralization.

Angara also highlighted DepEd’s procurement of 172,654 Apple MacBook Neo laptops for public school teachers and administrators through competitive bidding, bringing total laptop contracts under the DepEd Computerization Program to over 231,000 units.

READ: DepEd: Over 172000 teachers, staff to get Apple laptops

During his Visayas visit, Angara also inaugurated the new three-story DepEd Regional Office VI building in Iloilo City, designed to accommodate 150 regional personnel and streamline administrative services.

He also traveled to Bacolod City to address around 3,000 education leaders from public and private schools at the 1st Regional Assembly of Education Leaders in the Negros Island Region (NIR).

Organized by the Philippine Elementary School Principals Association–Negros Island Region, the assembly brought educators together to strengthen instructional leadership, share best practices, and address educational challenges.

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“In our regional assembly here at NIR, we’re hoping that we can strengthen the interaction of each school, teacher, and community to raise the quality of education in the new regions,” Angara said. /atm