THE Department of Education said that it is committed to lead the next decade of education reform following the launch of the Second Congressional Commission on Education's Final Report last Monday.
In a statement on Tuesday, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said that many of the recommendations of Edcom 2's final report, titled “Turning Point: A Decade of Necessary Reforms (2026–2035),” reflect ongoing initiatives under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s administration, particularly those focused on learning recovery, strengthening foundational skills, and advancing system-wide governance reforms.
“Many of the recommendations reflect reforms that DepEd has already started implementing. What we are doing now is moving faster, scaling up, and tightening accountability,” Angara said.
He said that the final report should be treated as a shared national agenda that would require sustained cooperation between government and society.
“Turning Point is ultimately a nation-building agenda, and its success will depend on collective action,” Angara added.
The Edcom 2 final report noted a decreasing number of students being proficient by the time they reach their final year of senior high school.
Edcom 2 Chairman and House Basic Education Committee Chairman Rep. Roman Romulo on Monday said that while 30.5 percent of Grade 3 learners are proficient, the figure drops to 19 percent by Grade 6, down to less than 1 percent by Grade 10, and by Grade 12, only 0.47 percent possess the minimum proficiency required.
It meant that out of every 1,000 senior high graduates, only four are truly ready.
The report, Romulo added, showed that mass promotion is "real and deeply rooted" and that it has evolved into a systemic culture where learners are allowed to proceed to higher grade levels despite lacking required competencies and clear indicators of unpreparedness.
"It is a failure of the system — one that imposes a congested curriculum, expects teachers to teach an excessive volume of content and learners to comprehend and master everything within an unreasonably short period of time, and then demands that all students pass their subjects regardless of readiness," Romulo said.
Edcom 2 co-chairman and House Higher and Technical Education Committee chairman Rep. Jude Acidre said that while the challenges facing Philippine education are deep, they are not beyond reform.
DepEd said that the reforms under Edcom 2 are being anchored earlier in a child's learning journey.
It noted the rollout of curriculum harmonization, workforce training, and unified data systems to strengthen early learning delivery, which will be supported by expanded feeding and parent engagement programs beginning School Year 2026–2027.
DepEd said that the revised curriculum from Kinder to Grade 10 is also being rolled out nationwide, supported by large-scale teacher training and earlier alignment of learning materials, while learning recovery is being implemented at scale through diagnostic-driven interventions under the ARAL, or Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning program.
"By School Year 2026–2027, reforms in grading, assessment, and promotion are expected to reinforce mastery-based learning and ensure that learner progression reflects actual learning outcomes," DepEd said The Senior High School program will also be strengthened through closer coordination with industry, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and the Commission on Higher Education, while reforms in the Alternative Learning System are improving learner tracking, literacy outcomes, and completion rates.
The Philippine Business for Education backed the government's push to end mass promotion.
“Promoting learners who haven’t mastered basic skills does them a disservice. Ending mass promotion is a necessary step to restoring credibility to our assessment systems and ensuring that student progression reflects actual learning,” PBEd Executive Director Bal Camua said.
