SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian on Saturday (26 July 2025) stressed the need to sustain and strengthen learning recovery efforts to further reduce the number of non-readers among Filipino students.

This follows the Department of Education’s report showing a significant drop in Grade 3 non-readers — from 65,000 last year to just 2,000 this year.

While calling the development a welcome milestone, Gatchalian warned that learning losses could worsen due to prolonged class suspensions caused by natural disasters and other disruptions.

He emphasized the importance of fully implementing the National Learning Recovery Program, particularly the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program, which aims to enhance foundational literacy and numeracy among early grade learners.

“We need to sustain learning recovery efforts, especially as prolonged class suspensions threaten to aggravate learning loss,” Gatchalian said.

“Moving forward, we must ensure the effective rollout of the ARAL Program and mobilize local government units to combat illiteracy,” he added.

The senator also reiterated the essential role of reading in a child’s development and future.

“Sa pagbasa nagsisimula ang pag-asa. If every Filipino child can read, we can ensure that no one is left behind in development,” he said.