The proposed Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Law, a priority measure identified by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), is now up for President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s signature.

This came after the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill 1604 and House Bill 8210 on Tuesday.

The ARAL Program bill seeks to establish a national learning intervention program with the two-fold objective of helping learners catch up with the required standard of their respective grade levels while accelerating the recovery of the learning losses incurred during the pandemic.

House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Culture chair and author of the bill, Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, said the ARAL Program aims to address the gap between the current and the expected learning competencies among learners.

“This program shall strive to ensure that the learners attain the most essential learning competencies covering the subjects of reading, mathematics, and sciences through the tutors who shall conduct the lessons in the program,” Romulo said.

The proposed program shall cover the most essential learning competencies (MELCs) under language and mathematics for Grades 1 to 10, and science for Grades 3 to 10.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who sponsored the bicameral conference committee report at the upper chamber, said through the proposed measure, recovering learners would engage in well-systematized tutorial sessions with an army of teachers, para-teachers, and pre-service teachers who receive sufficient training, focusing on effective pedagogies, interpersonal skills, social-emotional learning, and cultural competency, among others.

“We have come up with a piece of legislation that seeks to establish a free and effective national learning intervention program to ensure that all learners who are struggling in their lessons, especially in reading, mathematics, and science will be able to attain the competencies in their respective grade levels,” Gatchalian said.

“At the core of the ARAL Program is the commitment to impart knowledge from qualified tutors to the covered learners from Kindergarten to Grade 10.” (PNA)