The CRLA results for SY 2025-26 in Region II (Cagayan Valley) come from the end-of-year Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment of public schools on the EDCOM II early-childhood dashboard. Of the 164,618 Grade 1–3 learners assessed in 2,212 schools, 8.6% were struggling readers, against 10.0% nationally, a difference of -1.3 percentage points. Region II ranks 7 of 18 regions counting from the lowest share, and 48.9% of its learners read at grade level, close to the national 47.6%.
The regional figure hides how much of the need sits in one province. Isabela division has both the highest share of struggling readers and the largest number, and the five municipalities with the most struggling readers, like the five with the highest estimated shares, are all in Isabela province. At the other end is Batanes, the division with the fewest learners in the country. Region II also holds more of the dashboard’s recorded programs than of the country’s struggling readers, and its multigrade schools show a link with reading that the national model does not.
Key findings
- 8.6% of Grade 1–3 learners in Region II were struggling readers at the end of SY 2025-26, 14,237 learners in all, against 10.0% nationally, and 48.9% read at grade level against 47.6%.
- The division with the most struggling readers is Isabela (6,695 struggling readers), which also has the highest share; division shares run from 2.5% to 12.1% across the region’s 9 divisions.
- The only division five or more percentage points from the regional share is Batanes (2.5%), which assessed the fewest learners of the 232 divisions; no division lies outside the national funnel’s 95% limits.
- The five places with the highest estimated shares are all in Isabela province (Divilacan, Isabela (20.6%); San Mariano, Isabela (19.5%); San Guillermo, Isabela (16.6%); Palanan, Isabela (16.5%); Tumauini, Isabela (15.8%)), and the cluster test finds 3 low-low and 0 high-high clusters.
- In SY 2023-24 the median Region II school had 20.2 learners per teacher against 22.8 nationally, 91.1% of schools had internet against 76.3%, and 19.1% offered multigrade classes against 15.3%.
- In the region’s own model, 7 school inputs have an odds ratio whose 95% interval excludes 1, and multigrade classes go with more struggling readers within divisions, an association the national model does not show.
- Region II holds 8.0% of the programs recorded on the EDCOM II dashboard (8 records) but 2.8% of the country’s struggling readers.
CRLA reading levels by grade and language in Region II
The table shows the five CRLA levels, from Low Emerging to At Grade Level, for each grade-and-language block in Region II, with the region and the Philippines at the bottom.
| Grade and language | Learners | Low Emerging | High Emerging | Developing | Transitioning | At Grade Level | Struggling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 Mother Tongue | 50,957 | 7.3% | 5.0% | 10.9% | 29.2% | 47.7% | 12.3% |
| Grade 2 Mother Tongue | 53,169 | 4.8% | 1.9% | 8.1% | 37.9% | 47.3% | 6.8% |
| Grade 2 Filipino | 54,823 | 4.8% | 1.9% | 7.8% | 37.8% | 47.7% | 6.7% |
| Grade 3 Filipino | 58,258 | 3.6% | 1.2% | 4.9% | 39.4% | 51.0% | 4.8% |
| Grade 3 English | 58,838 | 5.6% | 1.7% | 6.3% | 35.2% | 51.2% | 7.3% |
| Region II, all learners | 164,618 | 5.9% | 2.8% | 8.2% | 34.2% | 48.9% | 8.6% |
| Philippines, all learners | 5,127,670 | 6.9% | 3.1% | 10.4% | 32.0% | 47.6% | 10.0% |
Region II stays near the national figures in every block. Grade 1 Mother Tongue is furthest ahead of the national share at grade level, Grade 1 Mother Tongue (+2.3 points), and Grade 2 Mother Tongue is the one block slightly behind, Grade 2 Mother Tongue (-0.7 points). Grade 1 still has the highest share of struggling readers, 12.3%, against 4.8% in Grade 3 Filipino, and in Grade 3 more learners struggle in English (7.3%) than in Filipino.
Schools divisions in Region II
Division figures are empirical Bayes estimates: each division’s own share, pulled toward the national rate, harder for small divisions, so that a few results cannot push a small division to either end by chance. The national funnel asks whether a division sits further from the national rate than divisions of its size usually do. The table lists all 9 divisions with their estimates, 95% intervals and national ranks.
| Division | Schools | Learners | Struggling readers | Share struggling | Estimate (95% interval) | National rank of 232 (95% interval) | National funnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batanes | 21 | 762 | 19 | 2.5% | 2.7% (1.7%–4.0%) | 14 (4–28) | within limits |
| Cagayan | 707 | 48,271 | 3,230 | 6.7% | 6.7% (6.5%–6.9%) | 66 (61–73) | within limits |
| Cauayan City | 65 | 6,726 | 741 | 11.0% | 11.0% (10.3%–11.8%) | 161 (152–173) | within limits |
| City of Ilagan | 87 | 6,404 | 588 | 9.2% | 9.2% (8.5%–9.9%) | 131 (108–146) | within limits |
| Isabela | 764 | 55,296 | 6,695 | 12.1% | 12.1% (11.8%–12.4%) | 178 (174–183) | within limits |
| Nueva Vizcaya | 336 | 23,547 | 1,467 | 6.2% | 6.2% (5.9%–6.5%) | 55 (52–64) | within limits |
| Quirino | 173 | 9,386 | 621 | 6.6% | 6.6% (6.1%–7.1%) | 65 (54–75) | within limits |
| Santiago City | 31 | 7,008 | 565 | 8.1% | 8.1% (7.4%–8.7%) | 96 (80–115) | within limits |
| Tuguegarao City | 28 | 7,218 | 311 | 4.3% | 4.3% (3.9%–4.8%) | 35 (26–42) | within limits |
Isabela leads on both measures: the highest share in the region and, as the table shows, far more struggling readers than any other division. Cauayan City and City of Ilagan, city divisions inside Isabela province, also sit above the regional share. None of the divisions lies outside the national funnel’s 95% limits.
Batanes has the lowest share, Batanes (2.5%). It assessed 762 learners, the fewest of the 232 divisions, so its interval is wider than the others’, yet the whole interval stays well below the regional share.
Languages of instruction
The dashboard records each school’s declared language of instruction, which describes the school, not each learner. In Region II, the table lists 5 entries declared by at least ten schools, one of them a catch-all “Other” group; Tagalog (76% of schools) leads, then Ilocano and Ibanag.
| Language of instruction | Schools | Learners | Share struggling | At Grade Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tagalog | 1,677 | 132,959 | 8.9% | 48.7% |
| Ilocano | 464 | 26,330 | 7.5% | 51.4% |
| Ibanag | 49 | 4,431 | 7.8% | 37.7% |
| Other | 12 | 665 | 4.4% | 63.6% |
| Ivatan | 10 | 233 | 2.6% | 68.2% |
Ibanag-medium schools have a struggling share close to the region’s but the lowest share at grade level, so more of their learners sit in the middle levels. Each language is tied to particular places, so these rows compare communities, not languages.
Grade 2 learners take the CRLA in both the mother tongue and Filipino. The share at grade level in Filipino minus the share in the mother tongue is +0.9 points in Region II, against -0.8 nationally: Grade 2 learners here read about as well in one language as in the other.
Where struggling readers are concentrated in Region II
The map shades the region’s 93 municipalities and cities by their estimated share of struggling readers, adjusted for the number of learners behind each one, on the scale used for the whole country. These are results for places, not for individual children.
The darker shades cover much of Isabela, and the highest estimated shares are all there: Divilacan, Isabela (20.6%); San Mariano, Isabela (19.5%); San Guillermo, Isabela (16.6%); Palanan, Isabela (16.5%); Tumauini, Isabela (15.8%). Ranked by count instead, the list keeps San Mariano and Tumauini and adds the cities of Cauayan, Ilagan and Santiago, also in Isabela, as the table below shows.
| Municipality or city | Province | Struggling readers | Learners | Estimated share struggling | Cluster |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Cauayan | Isabela | 741 | 6,726 | 11.0% | No cluster |
| San Mariano | Isabela | 593 | 3,036 | 19.5% | No cluster |
| Ilagan City (Capital) | Isabela | 588 | 6,404 | 9.2% | No cluster |
| Tumauini | Isabela | 579 | 3,669 | 15.8% | No cluster |
| City of Santiago | Isabela | 565 | 7,008 | 8.1% | No cluster |
A cluster test (local Moran’s I) checks whether a place and its neighbors together have unusually high or low shares, with a correction for testing many places at once (FDR 5%). Region II has 0 high-high and 3 low-low clusters; even the Isabela towns with the highest shares do not pass as a high-high cluster after that correction.
Early childhood: stunting and day care centers
The dashboard also reports stunting among children aged 0–2 in OPT Plus 2025, the yearly weighing of young children coordinated by the National Nutrition Council, and whether each barangay has a child development center (CDC), the barangay day care center. In Region II, 3.7% of the 91,392 children measured were stunted, against 4.3% nationally, and 125 of 2,311 barangays (5.4%) had no CDC, against 10.9%. The table breaks these figures down by province.
| Province or highly urbanized city | Children 0–2 measured | Stunted | Barangays without a CDC | Learners struggling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batanes | 322 | 4.0% | 3 of 29 | 2.5% |
| Cagayan | 28,486 | 3.0% | 63 of 820 | 6.4% |
| Isabela | 43,347 | 4.4% | 44 of 1,055 | 11.4% |
| Nueva Vizcaya | 13,093 | 3.4% | 11 of 275 | 6.2% |
| Quirino | 6,144 | 2.6% | 4 of 132 | 6.6% |
Isabela has both the highest stunting share, Isabela (4.4%), and the highest share of struggling readers among the provinces. That pairing describes places and different children: the toddlers measured in 2025 are not the learners assessed in SY 2025-26. Stunting, Day Care Centers and Early Reading tests the link nationwide.
School resources
School inputs come from DepEd’s SY 2023-24 school files, two school years before the CRLA. The table compares the median school’s learners per teacher and per classroom, and the share of schools with each facility.
| School input (SY 2023-24) | Region II | Philippines |
|---|---|---|
| Learners per teacher (elementary) | 20.2 | 22.8 |
| Learners per classroom (elementary) | 22.8 | 25.8 |
| Schools with internet | 91.1% | 76.3% |
| Schools with electricity | 98.7% | 97.6% |
| Schools with a water supply | 98.6% | 97.8% |
| Schools with no functional toilet | 0.6% | 2.3% |
| Schools with multigrade classes | 19.1% | 15.3% |
Region II schools have fewer learners per teacher than the national median and far more have internet. Multigrade classes, where one teacher handles two or more grades, are more common than nationally.
A model fitted to Region II schools alone compares schools within the same division, so differences between divisions do not drive it. An odds ratio above 1 means more struggling readers, below 1 fewer, and the ratios, school size and building condition are each measured per standard deviation. The inputs whose 95% interval excludes 1 are learners per teacher: odds ratio 1.24 (1.14–1.35); learners per classroom: odds ratio 1.07 (1.003–1.14); buildings needing major repair: odds ratio 0.92 (0.88–0.97); school size: odds ratio 0.78 (0.72–0.84); internet: odds ratio 0.82 (0.68–0.99); multigrade classes: odds ratio 1.29 (1.09–1.53); urban barangay: odds ratio 1.25 (1.10–1.42).
The results for multigrade classes, urban barangays and buildings needing repair differ from the national model, where each interval includes 1. Within a division, Region II schools with multigrade classes, and schools in urban barangays, have higher odds of struggling readers than others, while more buildings needing repair go with slightly lower odds, which may reflect how damage is reported. School Resources and CRLA Reading Results has the national model.
School heads
In DepEd’s SY 2023-24 personnel file, 39.6% of Region II schools have a School Principal position, close to the national 40.7%, and 33.6% have no head position, so a teacher-in-charge or officer-in-charge runs them.
As reported, without adjustment, schools with a principal had 7.8% struggling readers and schools without one 9.8%. Schools with a principal tend to be larger and more urban, so this raw gap mixes leadership with size and place; CRLA Results in Schools With and Without a Principal gives the adjusted national comparison.
Programs recorded in Region II
The EDCOM II dashboard lists literacy, nutrition and childcare programs reported by NGOs and corporate foundations. It records 8 in Region II, by category Nutrition (4); Literacy (3); Childcare (1), and by type Book/Reading Material Donation (2); Nutrition Counseling for Mothers (2); Supplementary Feeding (0-2yo) (2); Reading Remediation (Grades 1-3) (1); Child Development Center (CDC) Establishment (1).
Region II holds 8.0% of all recorded programs but 2.8% of the country’s struggling readers. Partners chose what to report, so the list is not a census, and it cannot show whether any program works; Literacy and Nutrition Programs Compared With Need compares all regions.
What this means for school heads in Region II
Grade 1 is where the most learners struggle in Region II, so early screening and extra reading time in the first grade deserve first claim on a school’s effort. For heads in Isabela, especially in the municipalities named above, the division’s higher share is a reason to bring the school’s own results to division planning.
Heads of multigrade schools have a specific reason to look closely, since, within a division, these schools have higher odds of struggling readers than other schools. It is worth checking whether Grade 1 learners in a combined class get enough direct reading instruction.
How these numbers were made
Reading results are CRLA results at the end of SY 2025-26, as of 10 May 2026, for public schools on the EDCOM II dashboard. Each learner is counted once (Grade 1 Mother Tongue, Grade 2 Filipino and Grade 3 English), and struggling readers are those at Low Emerging or High Emerging. Regional shares cover almost every learner, so they carry no sampling intervals. School inputs and heads come from DepEd’s SY 2023-24 files. Methods are in CRLA End-of-Year Results SY 2025-26 and How to Read a School’s CRLA Results Fairly.
Limits
The CRLA is a teacher-administered screen, so results depend partly on how schools give and record it. School inputs are two years older than the reading results, and the regional model shows associations, not what any input does. Stunting and CDC figures describe places and younger children.
Frequently asked questions
How many Region II learners were struggling readers at the end of SY 2025-26?
In all, 14,237 learners, or 8.6% of those assessed in Grades 1–3, were struggling readers, against 10.0% nationally. The region holds 2.8% of the country’s struggling readers.
Which Region II schools division counts the most struggling readers?
The division with the most is Isabela (6,695 struggling readers), which also has the highest share in the region. That share is still within the national funnel’s 95% limits for a division of its size.
Do multigrade schools in Region II have more struggling readers?
Within divisions, yes. In the region’s own model, schools that offer multigrade classes have higher odds of struggling readers than other schools in the same division, unlike in the national model. This is an association, not a measure of what multigrade teaching does to reading.
Download the data
The cleaned EDCOM II dashboard data behind this series are free to download for personal study; to reuse them, email support@nash.com.ph for written permission first. How the EDCOM Dashboard Data Was Cleaned explains every table and cleaning rule. The files are at data.nash.com.ph: start with the README, then the school table with CRLA results and school inputs (Parquet), the school estimates (CSV), the division estimates (CSV) and the municipal table (CSV). The DepEd school files used for school inputs are described in Download Cleaned DepEd School Data.
Every file, with its rows, columns and checksum, is listed on the EDCOM II CRLA data page. To cite the data: Llego, M. A. (2026). EDCOM II early-childhood dashboard data, cleaned, version 1. NASH Reviewer. https://nash.com.ph/edcom-data
More in this series
- CRLA End-of-Year Results SY 2025-26: All 18 Regions
- CRLA Start vs End of SY 2025-26 in the Same Schools
- CRLA by Language: Mother Tongue, Filipino and English
- How to Read a School’s CRLA Results Fairly
- CRLA Variation: School, Division or Region?
- Where Struggling Readers Are Concentrated
- School Resources and CRLA Reading Results
- CRLA Results in Schools With and Without a Principal
- Action Research and Thesis Topics on Reading (CRLA)
- CRLA Reading Hotspots: A Map of Struggling Readers
- Stunting, Day Care Centers and Early Reading
- Literacy and Nutrition Programs Compared With Need
- CRLA Schools With No Struggling Readers: A Data Check
- How the EDCOM Dashboard Data Was Cleaned
- Regional reports: NCR, CAR, Region I, Region II, Region III, Region IV-A, MIMAROPA, Region V, Region VI, NIR, Region VII, Region VIII, Region IX, Region X, Region XI, Region XII, Caraga, BARMM
- Earlier reports: CRLA Results SY 2025-2026 (DepEd’s selected-school file), Do the Same DepEd Schools Lag on the ELLNA, NAT and CRLA?, DepEd School Inputs vs Test Results, EDCOM II Final Report: Guide for Aspiring School Heads, DepEd Data for Aspiring School Heads: Where to Start
Analysis and charts by Mark Anthony Llego for NASH Reviewer. Data: EDCOM II early-childhood dashboard and Department of Education public datasets. NASH Reviewer is not affiliated with EDCOM II or DepEd. Charts may be reused only with written permission from support@nash.com.ph.