Angara to strengthen ARAL program after strong first-year reading gains

MAKATI CITY – Following strong first-year reading gains during School Year (SY) 2025-2026, with 4.5 million fewer struggling readers and 2.5 million more learners attaining grade-level readiness, the Department of Education (DepEd) is moving to further strengthen the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program implementation based on findings from a new independent impact evaluation.

The evaluation, conducted by Youth Impact– a global education non-profit specializing in evidence-based programming and evaluation– in partnership with the World Bank, provides new evidence on ARAL’s contribution to reading gains during the last school year.

After accounting for the learning progress expected over a school year without ARAL, evaluators estimate a 9 percentage-point drop in struggling readers—effectively lifting an additional approximately 1.37 million children out of the lowest reading bracket.

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The evaluation also found a 4.8 percentage-point increase in grade-level reading proficiency, equivalent to an estimated 730,000 more learners achieving this standard. Evaluators noted that these positive results held true across all regions.

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The findings show the early success of ARAL’s nationwide implementation, signaling strong potential for further gains as implementation systems are refined.

To build on this initial success, Youth Impact recommended that DepEd strengthen the ARAL Program by protecting dedicated classroom time for basic literacy, refining how learners are grouped by skill level, and shifting field monitoring toward active teacher coaching rather than administrative paperwork.

The report also highlights the use of DepEd’s data systems to quickly deliver support where it is needed most.

“Learning recovery is not a one-off campaign—it is a commitment to building a resilient educational core,” Education Secretary Sonny Angara said.

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“Through the continued partnership of our teachers, tutors, and local communities, we are turning policy into real, measurable opportunities for every Filipino child. We will continue to refine these interventions to ensure early gains carry through to higher grade levels,” Angara added.

The report credited ARAL’s success to its core approach: placing learners by actual skill level rather than age, tracking progress, coaching teachers directly, and routing support to struggling schools.

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Angara said that the results confirm the power of targeted, evidence-based learning interventions.

“When we passed the ARAL law, our goal was simple yet urgent: to ensure no learner is left behind simply because they needed more time or a different approach to master reading,” Angara said.

“With President Bongbong Marcos’ strong commitment to education reform, we are building a system where foundational reading support leads to lasting success.”

Created under Republic Act No. 12028, the ARAL Program Act provides structured remediation in reading, mathematics, and science by pairing learners with public school teachers, licensed para-teachers, pre-service educators, and trained community tutors nationwide.

About Youth Impact

Youth Impact is a global non-profit based in Gaborone, Botswana, that scales evidence-based, cost-effective education programs to improve children’s learning outcomes.

Partnering with governments and institutions like the World Bank, the organization uses rigorous evaluation and data-driven models to shape national education policies worldwide.

In collaboration with the World Bank, Youth Impact provided technical assistance to the Department of Education by conducting a third-party evaluation of its flagship Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program, launched in SY 2025–2026.

The evaluation was conducted by a team of Youth Impact specialists: Noam Angrist (Co-Founder), Mariel Bayangos (Education and Partnerships Specialist), Konstantin Buchel (Research Specialist), Jenny Perlman (Senior Lead, Innovation & Growth), and Elaine Umali-Trinos (Policy Specialist).

Angrist is a distinguished academic researcher whose work has appeared in top-tier journals, including nature, nature human behaviour, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

His extensive background includes advising the World Bank chief economist, co-developing the education pillar for the World Bank Human Capital Index, and leading research for major reports by the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel.

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Currently the Academic Director for the What Works Hub for Global Education, Angrist is a Rhodes and Fulbright scholar who holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Economics from MIT and a PhD from the University of Oxford.