GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 16 March) – The top 10 school divisions under the Department of Education (DepEd) with the highest percentage of struggling student readers are all from Mindanao, data released by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) showed.
EDCOM II is a national commission tasked to undertake a comprehensive national assessment and evaluation of the performance of the Philippine education sector – and to propose transformative solutions – from 2023 to 2025. It is composed of lawmakers from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and is guided by an advisory council.
Tawi-Tawi topped the list of struggling student readers with 75.60 percent, followed by Maguindanao del Norte with 65.38 percent, Special Geographic Area with 64.49 percent, Zamboanga City with 60.72 percent , and Sarangani with 60.57 percent.
Rounding up the top 10 are Sulu with 59.63 percent, Maguindanao del Sur with 58.46 percent, Lamitan City with 57.77 percent, Basilan with 57.59 percent and Davao Occidental with 57.17 percent.
The six DepEd school divisions on the top 10 are within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). These are Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao del Norte, Special Geographic Area, Maguindanao del Sur, Lamitan City, and Basilan.
Cotabato City, the seat of government of BARMM, ranked 11th with 55.05 percent struggling readers.
The other school divisions in the BARMM, Lanao del Sur II and Lanao del Sur I, have struggling student readers of 47.65 and 33.50 percent, respectively, way better than their counterparts in the region.
Sulu was previously part of the BARMM until the Supreme Court issued a ruling in September 2024 excluding it from the region.
The struggling readers rankings are based on the Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA) conducted at the beginning of school year 2025-2026.
They are contained in the “LGU Playbook: Fixing the Foundations of Local Education,” which EDCOM II launched last week along with the LGU Resource Center as part of the efforts to reform the country’s education system.
“Our education system is facing a historic crisis. Decades of underinvestment and fragmented governance have eroded the foundational skills of our youth,” the report stressed.
According to the LGU Playbook: “The inability to read starts early. Based on the adoption of Beginning of School Year (BOSY) assessments like the CRLA, as much as 88% of students across all grade levels are not “grade-level ready” in reading at the start of the school year.”
From Kinder to Grade 3, one in three, or 33.42 percent, of learners are “low emerging readers,” which means the vast majority of Filipino children are finishing their early years without the basic ability to read, it said.
In a statement, EDCOM II described the LGU Playbook as a reference guide that is tailored to help mayors and local executives navigate and improve the education sector within their municipalities.
The commission urged local government executives to give top priority to early education, noting that “when local education systems fail, communities feel the consequences — in the form of unemployment, poverty, and weakened local revenues. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
