EDCOM 2 reports early learning failure in Filipino students as proficiency nearly vanishes by SHS

Proficiency rates of Filipino students show an alarming decline from early grades to senior high school, according to the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) on Jan. 16.

EDCOM 2 reported that 85% of grades one to three pupils are struggling readers, with only 15% at grade-level reading proficiency.

One in four Grade 3 students can perform division correctly, highlighting deficiencies in foundational numeracy that further handicap later academic achievement in mathematics.

Nearly half of learners are not reading at grade level by the end of Grade 3.

The Commission’s upcoming final report states that only about 30.52% of Grade 3 students reached proficiency in basic literacy and numeracy skills, but this figure plummets to 0.47% by Grade 12.

The standardized assessments conducted by the Department of Education (DepEd) between 2023 and 2025 highlighted the drop of approximately 19.56% by grade six, and only 1.36% of learners are considered proficient by grade 10.

About four out of every 1,000 senior high school students can demonstrate skills expected after more than a decade of schooling, including problem-solving and information analysis.

“In fact, for years now, we have seen the low performance of our students in National Achievement Tests, and recently, it has also been confirmed by international assessments at Grades 4, 5, and 10,” said EDCOM 2 Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee.

According to EDCOM 2, the root cause of this decline is the “failure to master foundational skills in the earliest years of schooling.”

EDCOM 2 Co-Chair Senator Bam Aquino explains that acknowledging this is the first step toward securing long-overdue resources, from textbooks to classrooms, that many learners have lacked for years.