While the Department of Education (DepEd) plans to implement an eight-week literacy and numeracy program to improve learners’ performance, Senator Win Gatchalian urged the agency to ensure that learning recovery programs are cohesive.
The DepEd eyes suspending the regular academic program to give way to the implementation of the eight-week literacy and numeracy program. The program covers learners in Grades 1 to 3 and will be implemented in the first quarter of School Year (SY) 2025-2026.
A Science program with literacy and numeracy components for Grades 7 to 10 will begin in the third quarter of this school year. The Science program aims to improve Science scores and the proficiency levels of those in the program’s numeracy and literacy components. The initiative also seeks to prepare learners for the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which will focus on science.
Gatchalian also raised that the department is already implementing the National Learning Recovery Program (NLRP), which includes the national learning camp as one of its sub-programs. The senator, however, called for massive reforms in the NLRP.
The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) and the Senate Committee on Basic Education previously found that because of the voluntary nature of the DepEd’s learning camps, only 10% of learners needing intervention attended the program. The EDCOM II and the Senate basic education panel also found that only 50% of learners needing intervention participated in assessments of the NLRP.
“Moving forward, I suggest that we look at all these different programs, put them together, and make them cohesive. I am in full support of intensifying programs for literacy and numeracy, as well as our preparations for PISA. What’s important for us is to look at all the programs cohesively and how they will improve learning outcomes, especially on foundational skills such as literacy and numeracy” said Gatchalian, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.
The Eight-Week Literacy and Numeracy Program adopts the model of the DepEd’s Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines’ (ABC+) eight-week learning Learning Recovery Curriculum for grades 1 to 3, which was implemented in Regions V (Bicol) and VI (Western Visayas).
