MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed a law aimed at recovering pandemic-related learning losses by hiring teachers and para-teachers to provide structured tutorial sessions and intervention plans for struggling students.
The Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act, signed on Friday, October 18, is one of the administration's 20 priority measures targeted for passage in June this year.
The ARAL Program Act, filed by House and Senate lawmakers part of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), aims to create a national learning intervention program to help students meet grade-level standards and fast-track the recovery of pandemic-induced learning losses.
It primarily targets students who are below the minimum proficiency levels required in language, mathematics and science — three subjects Filipino students have consistently struggled with in international assessments like the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
Over 7,000 students from public and private schools took the PISA 2022 test, findings of which show that just less than a quarter had basic proficiency in mathematics, science and reading. Compared to the 2018 PISA, the Philippines’ scores in 2022 showed no significant difference.
Learning poverty in the Philippines was pegged by the World Bank in 2022 at 91% — which means around nine out of 10 children aged 10 struggle to read simple text.
How teachers will benefit
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Senate basic education panel and principal author of the Senate version of the ARAL Program Act, said the measure will involve qualified non-licensed teachers in helping struggling students grasp their lessons.
“At the core of the ARAL Program is the commitment to impart knowledge from qualified tutors to the covered learners from Kindergarten to Grade 10," the senator said in his speech for the ratification of the House and Senate's reconciled version of the bill on August 13.
"As such, recovering learners will engage in well-systematized tutorial sessions with an army of teachers, para-teachers, and pre-service teachers who receive sufficient training, focusing on effective pedagogies, interpersonal skills, social-emotional learning, and cultural competency, among others,” he added.