Angara: Best teachers assigned to Grade 1-3

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) will assign its best teachers to Grades 1 to 3 to address early learning difficulties, particularly reading, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said.

Angara said the department has changed its practice of assigning newly hired teachers to the early grades, emphasizing the need for experienced and capable educators to address learners’ special needs.

“We’re assigning the best teachers, not necessarily the young teachers but some of our best teachers, to ensure that any special needs are given attention,” Angara told “Storycon” on One News.

The move is in response to the findings of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM2) that 10 percent of learners in Grades 1 to 3 are struggling readers.

Based on the End-of-School-Year 2025-2026 assessment, EDCOM2 said 10 percent of the 5,127,670 learners covered were still struggling to read.

“It is important to address such difficulties as early as possible,” Angara said.

“As EDCOM pointed out, there has been a practice of transmutation, mass promotion. Transmutation essentially is the adjustment of grading standards, either raising or lowering the standard of grades to ensure that almost everyone passes. We have put an end to that,” he added.

While acknowledging the difficulty of accepting that many students are failing, Angara said the department must confront the problem and overhaul its curriculum, grading system, timetables, semesters and scheduling.

“We need to bite the bullet, as the saying goes, we can only delay dealing with the problem for so long. Eventually, you reach a dead end, and then what? There’s nowhere left to kick the can. So, we really have to face up to this reality and revamp our curriculum, revamp our grading system, revamp our timetables, our semester, our scheduling,” he said.

Angara stressed that consistent funding would be necessary to sustain the ARAL program, which began implementation in school year 2025-2026.

“The ARAL implementation only began in the school year 2025. So for me, if we really want to go on the fast track to improve learner outcomes, the ARAL will be a crucial part of that. So, I think that’s why we always place it at or near the top of our wish list,” he said.