About 4.5 million struggling learners have improved in literacy and numeracy under the government’s learning recovery efforts in the basic education system, the Department of Education (DepEd) said on Wednesday.

In a statement, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the agency is advancing learning recovery or remediation measures, even from foundational learning, to ensure the employability of future graduates.

This is in line with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directive to ensure the welfare of learners alongside the advancement of quality education in the Philippines.

“Our goal is to strengthen the entire learning recovery pipeline, from the earliest grades through senior high [school], so that early literacy success translates into lasting proficiency and genuine readiness for the world beyond graduation,” Angara said.

The improved proficiency levels at the end of the school year (EOSY) were reported based on the results of the Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA), Rapid Math Assessment (RMA), and the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) for School Year 2025-2026.

For struggling readers, the number of learners dropped to 2.2 million from 6.7 million during the onset of the school year.

These include those needing immediate intervention in phonemic awareness, decoding, and simple narrative comprehension.

The most significant improvement was noted among struggling readers in Grades 1 to 3, at 33 percent; followed by those in Grades 7 to 10, at 28 percent; and 16 percent for Grades 4 to 6.

“Grade-level ready” readers or those who are capable of independent text engagement, likewise, rose to 5.8 million from 3.3 million for the same period.

For Mathematics, “not or low proficient” learners almost halved, as it dropped to 6.8 million from 13 million across all grade levels.

“Emerging learners” in Math, or those with scores below proficiency levels, have also posted a 46 percent decrease among Grades 1 to 3; a 44 percent drop in Grades 4 to 6, and an 18 percent drop in Grades 7 to 10.

Angara vowed to sustain existing interventions, especially for secondary levels.

“We will continue to refine these interventions to ensure that the progress we see in the early years is sustained through the secondary levels, equipping our high school learners with the analytical skills they need for the future,” he said.

The education chief, however, stressed that quality instruction in classrooms must still be advanced on top of the learning recovery efforts, especially amid the upcoming shift to a three-term school calendar. (PNA)