Senator Sherwin Gatchalian wants to institute a nationwide learning recovery program for students who may have been left behind in terms of education during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gatchalian, who chaired the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts, and Culture in the previous18th Congress, refiled Senate Bill (SB) 150, which bats for the creation of the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program.
“Upang tuloy tuloy na makabangon ang sektor ng edukasyon mula sa pinsalang dulot ng pandemya, kailangan nating magpatupad ng malawakang programa para sa learning recovery (In order to bolster the education sector’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to establish a program for learning recovery),” Gatchalian said on Monday, Aug. 15.
The namesake ARAL Act will act as a national learning intervention program for students who were unable to enroll in school year 2020-2021, students “lagging” academically, and those who are “at and marginally above the minimum level of mastery” for Language, Mathematics, and Science by providing the following:
“Well-systematized tutorial sessions which demonstrate higher achievement gains; b) Well-designed remediation plans tailored fit to the learning needs of learners; c) Careful assessment and evaluation of the progress of learners; d) Well-chosen and trained remedial instruction facilitators; and e) Adequate provision of nutritional, social, emotional, and mental health support to ensure the holistic well-being of learners, and for them to prosper academically, build resilience against adversity, and be equipped with skills and confidence to seek help for early intervention during their educational journey,” Gatchalian wrote in SB 150.
In his explanatory note, Gatchalian cited a pre-Covid-19 World Bank study which estimated that learning poverty in the Philippines was around 90.5 percent. “This suggests that nine in every 10 Filipino learners aged 10 are unable to read and understand a simple text.”
He then cited a December 2021 joint report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNICEF) and the World Bank which projected that learning poverty could increase by up to 10 percent in low-income countries due to school closures.