GABRIELA Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas called on the Department of Education to focus in addressing the high learning poverty rate in the Philippines.

She urged the DepEd to allocate sufficient funds and resources to improve the literacy rate of Filipino children.

“The alarming learning poverty rate in our country demands urgent action from the Department of Education,” Brosas said, citing the World Bank 2021 report that 90 percent of 10-year-old Filipino children faced difficulties in reading.

She said that despite President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s statement in his recent State of the Nation Address that learning recovery will be at the forefront of the education agenda, the allocated budget for the National Learning Recovery Program is only P105 million, which is less than one percent of the total DepEd budget.

“Even the so-called National Learning Camp under the National Learning Recovery Program is voluntary and not funded by DepEd,” Brosas stressed.

“We believe that the P150 million confidential funds of the DepEd secretary should be redirected to literacy programs, which would help more children learn to read, rather than being utilized for surveillance in schools,” she added.