SENATE President Sherwin Gatchalian is pushing for adequate funding for the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program in the proposed 2027 national budget to sustain gains in student literacy.

Gatchalian stressed that effective education programs must receive sufficient funding to ensure that improvements in learners’ academic performance are sustained and expanded.

He cited an impact evaluation conducted by DepEd, nonprofit organization Youth Impact, and the World Bank, which found that 1.37 million learners had moved out of the struggling reader category following the implementation of the ARAL Program.

Of this number, 730,000 learners are now reading at their appropriate grade level, while reading proficiency among Grades 1 to 3 learners improved by 37 percent within a standard school year.

Gatchalian previously championed the allocation of a record P8.9 billion for the program during his tenure as chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance.

However, the proposed 2027 National Expenditure Program does not include a dedicated budget allocation for the ARAL Program.

To sustain and expand the program’s gains, DepEd is seeking P15.63 billion for its implementation in 2027.

Gatchalian emphasized that providing adequate funding for the program is crucial to sustaining improvements in students’ reading skills and addressing persistent learning gaps.

He stressed that continued government support for learning recovery initiatives is necessary to ensure that more Filipino learners develop essential literacy skills and keep pace with their grade-level requirements.