Sen. Gatchalian: ‘Aral’ bill passage to boost learning recovery focus

In his second State of the Nation Address (Sona), President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. 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 pandemic, full face-to-face classes resumed in public schools on November 2, 2022. The lack of face-to-face classes, however, has been linked to learning loss, with the World Bank estimating learning poverty in the country at 90.9 percent as of June 2022.

This alarming figure indicates that 9 out 10 Filipino children aged 10 cannot read or understand a simple story.

The World Bank also sees a decline in Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling or “Lays” from 7.5 years to 5.7 to 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.

The Aral Program Act, or Senate Bill 1604, which Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian filed and sponsored and the Upper House already ap - proved on third and final reading last March, seeks to address learning loss by accelerating learning recovery and mitigating the pandemic’s effects.

The proposed program will give learners access to well-systematized tutorial sessions and well-designed intervention plans.

Gatchalian—as chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education—thanked the president for recognizing the importance of learning recovery in helping address the damage by the pandemic among students. By the strength of Marcos’s Sona message, the senator is confident that the Aral Program Act will be enacted to ensure that the local education sector can rebound.

The chief executive also emphasized the strengthening of literacy and numeracy skills, which aligns with one of the key objectives of the Aral bill.