DAVAO City public schools reduced the share of struggling readers in Grades 1 to 3 from 45 percent to 9 percent by the end of School Year (SY) 2025-2026, but nearly half of these learners returned to the lowest reading proficiency levels when classes opened for SY 2026-2027, according to the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2).
In a Facebook post on Sunday, October 25, 2026, Edcom 2 highlighted the apparent setback, raising concerns about whether reading gains made during the previous school year were sustained over the school break.
The commission said, "45% of learners in Davao City remain at 'Low- or High-Emerging' across grade levels."
Based on DepEd's Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA) results for the beginning of SY 2026-2027, cited in Edcom 2's infographic, 29,109 of the 83,559 learners assessed in the city were at the "Low Emerging" level and 9,119 were at "High Emerging." Together, that is 38,228 learners, or 45 percent. Only 10,972 learners, or 13 percent, were classified as "Grade Level Ready."
In a Facebook post on Monday, Oct. 26, Davao City Schools Division Superintendent Reynante Solitario cited that struggling readers fell from about 39,750 learners at the beginning of SY 2025-2026 to 8,064 by the end, based on the CRLA.
He credited DepEd's Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (Aral) Program, along with reading programs and school-based interventions, and said the division ranked third among 11 school division offices in Region 11 with the lowest share of struggling readers.
"While the progress is encouraging, the remaining number of struggling readers reminds us that our work is far from over," Solitario wrote.
"The 45% figure is not the end of our story. It is our starting point for another year of purposeful action, stronger collaboration, and renewed commitment," he said in a separate post.
Edcom 2 Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee said in an interview with the local media on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 25, at Dani’s in Ponciano Street, that the problem built up over years.
"Kasi alam niyo po, yung learning crisis, hindi siya nangyari overnight. Sa totoo lang, naipon 'to ng matagal, ah ilang taong napabayaan, kaya ngayon kailangan tutukan," Yee said. (Because, you know, the learning crisis did not happen overnight. In truth, it piled up over a long time, years of neglect, so now it needs focused attention.)
He said the gap follows learners into higher grades.
"Medyo malaking problema po ito kasi nakikita natin, mga Grade 8 students, hirap magbasa ng sentence. Mga Grade 9 students na dapat na ngayon nag-aaral dapat ng Shakespeare, hindi makapagbasa ng paragraph," Yee said. (This is quite a big problem because we see Grade 8 students who have difficulty reading a sentence, and Grade 9 students who should now be studying Shakespeare who cannot read a paragraph.)
In senior high school, only 25 percent of Grade 11 learners in Davao City were independent readers in DepEd's literacy and numeracy assessment at the end of SY 2025-2026, Solitario said in another post. Twenty-nine percent were at the instructional level and 46 percent at the frustration level.
He said Davao City and Region 11 had the highest reported shares of independent readers, at 24 percent.
Region worse than national average
Davao Region as a whole fared worse. Of the 258,630 learners assessed in the region, 124,388, or 48 percent, were at the two "Emerging" levels. Only 30,322, or 12 percent, were grade-level ready.
Nationwide, 45 percent of the more than five million learners assessed were in the two lowest levels, and 14 percent were grade-level ready.
Davao del Sur towns
In a separate post the same day, Edcom 2 listed the local government units (LGUs) in Davao del Sur with the most "struggling readers," using CRLA results from the end of SY 2025-2026 and its Early Childhood Dashboard. The figures come from a different assessment period from the beginning-of-year results.
Province-wide, Davao del Sur had 3,346 struggling readers, or 9.5 percent, based on the Edcom 2 dashboard.
Digos City had the most struggling readers, with 920 (9.2 percent of its learners), followed by Santa Cruz with 793.
By share, Malalag ranked highest at 15.5 percent, followed by Santa Cruz at 12.5 percent, Sulop at 12.4 percent, and Padada at 11.9 percent. All four are above the national rate of 10 percent of Grade 1 to 3 learners shown on the EDCOM 2 dashboard.
Yee said DepEd cannot solve the problem alone and urged LGUs to get involved.
"Yung mga LGUs sana, kung pwedeng tumutok sa mga problema ng literacy kasi nakita namin na sa mga lugar kung saan yung mayor mismo nagbabantay sa improvement ng reading ng mga paaralan, mas gumagalaw. Mas malalaki yung improvement," he said. (We hope LGUs can focus on literacy problems, because we have seen that in places where the mayor personally watches over the schools' reading improvement, things move. The improvement is bigger.)
He said that in successful municipalities and cities, even barangay tanods visit parents to convince them to send their children to reading sessions.
Towns without child development centers
The dashboard also tracks barangays without a Child Development Center (CDC). Malalag, which had the highest share of struggling readers, also had the highest share of barangays without a CDC in the province at 20 percent, or three barangays. Sulop followed at 16 percent, or four barangays.
Thirteen barangays in Davao del Sur, or 5.6 percent, have no CDC, below the national rate of 11 percent. In Davao City, 13 barangays, or 7.1 percent, have none.
Stunting
The same infographic paired reading results with child nutrition data. Padada had the highest share of stunted children at 6.1 percent, followed by Matanao at 4.9 percent and Davao City at 4.7 percent, or 2,244 children. All three are above the national rate of 4.3 percent for children up to two years old, according to the dashboard.
Tutors and books
Yee also called on universities, especially those offering teacher education programs, to lend students, professors, and volunteers as tutors for DepEd's literacy program, which he said runs for an hour every afternoon.
He also urged communities to hold book drives in their barangays and parishes, noting that many Filipino families have no books at home.
"So kahit gusto ng batang magbasa, walang babasahin," he said. (So even if a child wants to read, there is nothing to read.) GRS