As the Senate approved on second reading the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act, industry-led advocacy group Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) underscored the need to improve children's learning outcomes and is taking proactive actions to curb learning poverty in the country.

“We should provide our young learners the right support and tools in the early stages of life to equip them with skills and knowledge vital for their cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical development,” said PBEd Executive Director Justine Raagas.

PBEd is the business community’s response to the need for greater education
and economic alignment.

A nonprofit founded by the country’s top CEOs, PBEd’s advocacies include teacher quality improvement and workforce development

PBEd partnered with Accenture Philippines to introduce Kiddie Learning Train (KLT) to teach kids basic reading and math skills through an offline gamified app developed by the digital California-based early-learning solutions provider, Enuma in 2021.

(Photos courtesy of PBEd)

The program also aims to enlist volunteer tutors with educational backgrounds to ensure continued learning even remotely.

Its pilot in Cebu resulted in 69 percent and 18 percent increase in reading and math scores of students falling behind their class.

To empower local governments and spread the gains of KLT, the program was relaunched in Himamaylan City in Negros Occidental last month to strengthen the reading and math skills of Kinder 1 and 2 learners.

To kickstart the project, 52 young learners were assessed for baseline skills. In addition, parents were also oriented on the program’s plans and goals to address their children’s learning difficulties in reading and math.

With this breakthrough, PBEd seeks to sustain the KLT program for it to be adopted by other local government units so that learners receive a quality education with a strong foundation in reading and math.

"This is crucial to alleviate the high learning poverty rate in the country," PBEd added.

Meanwhile, KLT Program Manager Ruth Recto urged stakeholders to continue to work together and “make a lasting impact in a child’s life by ensuring that they are given quality care and education at home and in school–because investing in a child’s future is an investment in our future.”

In his message, Himamaylan Vice Mayor Justin Gatuslao said that the city of Himamaylan supports PBEd in carrying out KLT using the technology through tablets with gamified apps.

“This will help in strengthening the techniques and new innovation in education,” he added.

Himamaylan City Mayor Raymund Tongson, Jr., City Social Welfare and Development Officer Evergrace T. Castro, and Barangay 3 Council head Benjamin Jose Sian were also present during the launch.

PBEd also seeks to expand the KLT program to other regions, especially in disadvantaged areas with high illiteracy and learning poverty.