MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) was flagged for delays in hiring external tutors for the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program, which pushed some schools to rely on few volunteer teachers instead.

The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) made the observation on Tuesday, May 26, following school visits in Baseco, an urban poor community in Manila.

The ARAL Program, a 20-day initiative to help students catch up with reading, mathematics, and science lessons, already began on May 6 and will end on June 2.

According to DepEd guidelines released late April, there should be a tutor-to-learner ratio of 1:10. Tutors can be both public school teachers and external tutors.

Under the 2026 national budget, P1.96 billion was allocated for tutor compensation.

But EDCOM 2 learned from DepEd representatives that some schools had to rely on volunteer teachers because they had yet to receive the funds to pay external tutors. The program was not implemented in grade levels lacking volunteer teachers.

Volunteer teachers also told the commission that they have no transportation allowance, and it is unclear if they would receive meal allowances, unlike in previous national learning camps where they received P350 daily for meals. According to them, they were only promised service credit leaves.

“After one full year of implementation of the ARAL Program, it is normal for us to go through birth pains in implementation, but it is imperative that we take stock of these challenges faced by teachers on the ground and integrate improvements as we begin another school year this June 8,” EDCOM 2 Executive Director Karol Mark Yee was quoted as saying. 

“Sana po, sa darating na school year, magkaroon na ng linaw ang mga incentives para sa ating mga guro, at talagang maipatupad na ang pag-engage ng external tutors para tumulong sa implementation ng ARAL Program,” Yee said. 

(We hope in the upcoming school year, there will be clear guidelines regarding the incentives for teachers, and that the DepEd will fully engage the services of external tutors to help in the implementation of the ARAL Program.)

Low participation rates

Poor attendance of students has emerged as a problem, too.

For instance, only 73 out of 1,175 learners identified as needing literacy intervention across Grades 1 to 6 at Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Elementary School attended the remediation sessions. That is just 6%.

At the President Corazon C. Aquino High School, only 20 out of 139 identified students from Grades 7 to 10, or 14%, participated in the program. Reasons for non-attendance included students needing to work or help out their family, or they were on summer break.

EDCOM 2 emphasized that while students struggling the most with reading dropped from 6.5 million at the beginning of school year (SY) 2025-2026 to 3 million by the end of the academic year, many still require remediation.

“The challenge is especially visible in higher grade levels. In Grades 7 to 10, around 1 million learners remained as Frustration readers by the end of SY 2025-2026,” EDCOM 2 said. “Frustration” refers to the lowest reading level. 

“Further, the SHS Literacy and Numeracy Assessment pilot likewise showed severe gaps: only 12.6% of Grade 11 learners reached Independent reading proficiency, while 58.9%, or 872,906 learners, remained at Frustration level,” added the commission.

– Rappler.com