Most Grade 11 students struggle with reading. What now?

MANILA, Philippines – After over a decade of implementation of the K to 12 program, the Department of Education (DepEd) made the move to assess the literacy and numeracy skills of Grade 11 students. 

Last March, the pilot Senior High School (SHS) Literacy and Numeracy Assessment was administered to 1.4 million out of 1.9 million Grade 11 learners.

It was conducted within the first year of implementation of the DepEd’s remediation intervention, the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program under Republic Act No. 12028.

The DepEd found that most Grade 11 students were struggling to read and comprehend material for their level.

The baseline results, however, were publicly reported not by the DepEd but by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) in a congressional hearing on May 28.

According to data accessed through the Bureau of Learning Delivery’s portal, nearly 59% of Grade 11 learners who underwent assessment were categorized under the “Frustration” level, where students cannot read and comprehend grade-level texts.

Over 28% of Grade 11 students are at “Instructional” level, which means they need teacher support to understand texts.

Only the remainder, or more than 12% of students, were found to be “Independent” readers.

“So, 87% of Grade 11 students is a big number that we want to address,” EDCOM 2 Chief Legal Officer Simoun Salinas told lawmakers. The figure translates to nearly 1.3 million learners. 

The situation does not just apply to English texts — it is the same with the national language. Only 1 in 10 Grade 11 students showed strong Filipino reading and comprehension skills without teacher assistance.

Impending work for DepEd

Literacy woes in SHS are a consequence of the decades-long problems in the education sector, which begin in preschool. Education Undersecretary Carmela Oracion described the assessment results as “very bad,” but stressed the importance of the findings for the DepEd.

“Now we know the profiles of learners in senior high school. Then we can also introduce changes, improvements in our senior high school courses,” Oracion told Rappler in a mix of English and Filipino.

During the May 28 congressional hearing, EDCOM 2 asked education officials how revised SHS electives would help struggling Grade 11 readers catch up, but the query was unanswered. The DepEd, through a memorandum in March, had said that it would issue a list of remediation activities based on the assessment results.

For Dina Ocampo, a professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman and a former DepEd undersecretary who helped craft the K to 12 program, improving all aspects of the education sector is key to addressing the literacy crisis.

“The more supported teachers are, the better schools are organized, the less congested, the more materials they have, all of these are implementation issues,” she told Rappler. 

“If you only look at it from the point of view of the curriculum that is written, then that does not translate to what really happens in learning situations,” she added.

Role of ARAL Program

Meanwhile, EDCOM 2 noted that the proportion of “grade level-ready” readers in basic education increased from 19% at the start of school year (SY) 2025-2026 to 48% at the end.

The same trajectory was also found in Grade 3 learners. However, half of them were still not “at grade level” with their English proficiency by the end of SY 2025-2026.

Under the Matatag curriculum, Grade 3 completers are expected to become literate and increasingly fluent in the use of English, with a strong backing from their first language to understand and discuss lessons.

EDCOM 2 earlier warned that “students who fall behind early find it increasingly impossible to comprehend more complex curricula in higher grades.” (READ: Not even 1% of Grade 12 students ‘proficient’ in their subjects)

Hurdles were seen also during the 20-day ARAL Summer Program, as there were low attendance numbers. Questions also remain on who exactly will teach students during ARAL sessions in the upcoming SY 2026-2027, given that there is funding allocated for the hiring of external tutors. (READ: DepEd flagged for delays in hiring ARAL tutors)

“Whatever gains may have been achieved under remediation programs such as ARAL are largely due to the sacrifice, extended labor, and commitment of underpaid teachers who continue to compensate for systemic failures,” Alliance of Concerned Teachers national chairperson Ruby Bernardo told Rappler. “Teachers have once again been made shock absorbers for a broken education system.”

Education Secretary Sonny Angara previously vowed to “strengthen the entire learning recovery pipeline…so that early literacy success translates into lasting proficiency and genuine readiness for the world beyond graduation.”

With another school year set to open, all eyes would be on the DepEd once again, and how it would use its historic P1.015-trillion funding under the 2026 budget to address the literacy crisis and other long-standing woes of the education sector. – Rappler.com