EDUCATION Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III admitted during a Senate budget hearing that there is a crisis in education.

“That was made clear to us by Secretary Sara, by VP Sara mentioning even to us that we are lost in the forest right now because we are too theoretical in addressing learning loss rather than being practical and looking at the competent side of it,” Densing said, referring to Education Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio.

Carpio laid plans on how her department will address the crisis.

These include developing a learning recovery and continuity plan that includes student profiling and grouping based on academic needs, increasing learning time, carrying out end-of-year or summer learning remediation intervention programs and involving parents or other legal guardians in the facilitation of learning.

DepEd also intends to step up the implementation of reading intervention programs and English language education for subjects taught in that language, carry out routine home visits and follow-ups, and improve instructional monitoring.

Duterte-Carpio also mentioned the lack of a national reading program for students.

“So it’s up to the field to develop their own reading program through their Brigada Eskwela and this is something that I think should be worked on by the Department of Education— a national reading program for our K to Grade 3,” she said.