The Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) released its top 10 findings for 2025, highlighting widespread functional illiteracy affecting 24 million Filipinos and the ongoing exclusion of millions of children with disabilities from basic services.
On January 1, 2026, the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) unveiled its top 10 findings for the previous year. The first finding drew from the Philippine Statistics Authority's 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey, released on April 30, 2025. It revealed that over 24 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64 are functionally illiterate, with another 5.8 million basically illiterate.
The second finding, from the policy brief 'Accelerating Support for Learners with Disabilities' issued on November 21, 2025, exposed significant gaps in inclusive education. Although the Inclusive Education Act aligns with international best practices, local resource and capacity shortages hinder its implementation. Only 391,089 learners with disabilities are enrolled in public schools, accounting for just 8 percent of the estimated 5.1 million children with disabilities nationwide.
Third, merely 43 percent of malnourished children aged two to four are covered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development's supplementary feeding program. Edcom 2 points to structural issues and facility-based interventions as key factors, urging a 'system reset' to define governance roles and ensure programs reach vulnerable groups. Additionally, funding misunderstandings have blocked national programs from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, with some agencies reducing health and education support under the misconception that the region's block grant suffices.
Meanwhile, Congress plans to extend the Edcom 2 model to agriculture via Senate Bill 1624, establishing the Congressional Commission on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Security.
