CRLA results in Region VI (Western Visayas) at the end of SY 2025-26 are better than the country’s in every grade. In Grades 1–3, 53.4% of the region’s 199,208 assessed public school learners read at grade level and 8.2% were struggling readers; nationally the shares are 47.6% and 10.0%. Among the 18 regions, Region VI’s rank is 6, where 1 is the lowest share of struggling readers.
The exception is the region’s largest city. The Iloilo City division has the highest share of struggling readers in Region VI, well above every other division, while Capiz and Roxas City have some of the lowest shares in the country. Region VI schools also have fewer learners per teacher and per classroom than the national median. All figures come from Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA) results for public schools on the EDCOM II early-childhood (ECCD) dashboard, as of 10 May 2026.
Key findings
- With 8.2% of its 199,208 assessed learners struggling, Region VI differs from the national 10.0% by -1.8 percentage points and ranks 6 of the 18 regions from the lowest share.
- All five blocks are above the national share at grade level, most of all Grade 3 English (+7.2 points), where 57.3% of learners read at grade level against 50.1% nationally.
- The division furthest from the regional share is Iloilo City (17.6%); division shares run from 3.2% to 17.6%.
- The cluster test outlines 9 low-low places on the map, all in Capiz, and 0 high-high places.
- Stunting among children aged 0–2 in OPT Plus 2025 was 3.2%, below the national 4.3%, but Antique (6.5%) is at least half again the national share.
- The median school has 19.2 learners per teacher and 20.0 per classroom, against 22.8 and 25.8 nationally; within divisions, schools in urban barangays are associated with fewer struggling readers, unlike in the national model.
- 33.3% of Region VI schools have a School Principal, against 40.7% nationally, and as reported, schools with and without one have almost the same share of struggling readers.
Reading levels by grade and language in Region VI
Each learner’s CRLA result is one of five levels: Low Emerging, High Emerging, Developing, Transitioning or At Grade Level. A learner at either Emerging level is a struggling reader in this series. The table compares Region VI’s five grade-and-language blocks, and its learners overall, with the Philippines.
| Grade and language | Learners | Low Emerging | High Emerging | Developing | Transitioning | At Grade Level | Struggling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 Mother Tongue | 61,591 | 6.6% | 5.2% | 13.0% | 24.3% | 51.0% | 11.7% |
| Grade 2 Mother Tongue | 63,031 | 4.4% | 1.9% | 9.4% | 30.9% | 53.5% | 6.2% |
| Grade 2 Filipino | 67,452 | 4.6% | 1.9% | 9.5% | 32.4% | 51.6% | 6.5% |
| Grade 3 Filipino | 70,478 | 3.7% | 1.4% | 6.5% | 33.5% | 54.9% | 5.1% |
| Grade 3 English | 70,165 | 4.8% | 1.8% | 7.1% | 29.0% | 57.3% | 6.6% |
| Region VI, all learners | 199,208 | 5.2% | 2.9% | 9.7% | 28.7% | 53.4% | 8.2% |
| Philippines, all learners | 5,127,670 | 6.9% | 3.1% | 10.4% | 32.0% | 47.6% | 10.0% |
The lead is widest in Grade 3 English (+7.2 points) and narrowest in Grade 3 Filipino (+4.1 points). In Grade 1 Mother Tongue, 51.0% read at grade level, against 45.4% nationally, and 6.6% are at Low Emerging, against 9.4%.
Grade 1 is still where Region VI’s struggling readers are most common: 11.7%, against 5.1% in Grade 3 Filipino. Because each grade is a separate group of children, measured once, this is a snapshot rather than a path.
Schools divisions in Region VI
Region VI’s results come from 2,433 public schools spread over 8 schools divisions. The table shows each division’s struggling readers and an empirical Bayes estimate of its share, which nudges small divisions toward the national rate so chance does not rank them, with a 95% interval and a rank among the 232 divisions.
| Division | Schools | Learners | Struggling readers | Share struggling | Estimate (95% interval) | National rank of 232 (95% interval) | National funnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aklan | 321 | 24,993 | 2,029 | 8.1% | 8.1% (7.8%–8.5%) | 98 (87–108) | within limits |
| Antique | 472 | 27,749 | 2,136 | 7.7% | 7.7% (7.4%–8.0%) | 86 (78–95) | within limits |
| Capiz | 417 | 26,135 | 833 | 3.2% | 3.2% (3.0%–3.4%) | 19 (16–21) | within limits |
| Guimaras | 98 | 8,210 | 376 | 4.6% | 4.6% (4.1%–5.1%) | 37 (32–45) | within limits |
| Iloilo | 992 | 84,068 | 7,118 | 8.5% | 8.5% (8.3%–8.7%) | 106 (101–114) | within limits |
| Iloilo City | 54 | 16,800 | 2,964 | 17.6% | 17.6% (17.1%–18.2%) | 215 (213–216) | within limits |
| Passi City | 38 | 4,177 | 534 | 12.8% | 12.8% (11.8%–13.8%) | 189 (173–194) | within limits |
| Roxas City | 41 | 7,076 | 253 | 3.6% | 3.6% (3.2%–4.0%) | 22 (18–29) | within limits |
Iloilo City against the rest
The highest division share is Iloilo City (17.6%), among the higher shares in the country, and Passi City is also above the national figure. At the other end are Capiz (3.2%), Roxas City and Guimaras. The division with the most struggling readers is Iloilo (7,118 struggling readers), the province division and by far the largest.
The national funnel sets 95% limits for the normal spread among divisions of each size, and the number of Region VI divisions beyond them is 0. Iloilo City is far from its region, but not outside the range seen across Philippine divisions.
Languages of instruction
Under RA 12027 of 2024, the mother tongue is no longer the medium of instruction in Kindergarten to Grade 3 outside monolingual classes that meet the law’s requirements; the CRLA for SY 2025-26 nonetheless tested Grades 1 and 2 in each school’s reported language. The table gives the 4 languages used in enough Region VI schools to report, each with its share struggling and its share at grade level. The leading language is Hiligaynon (63% of schools).
| Language of instruction | Schools | Learners | Share struggling | At Grade Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hiligaynon | 1,525 | 138,958 | 8.4% | 52.4% |
| Kinaray-a | 536 | 30,582 | 6.9% | 59.3% |
| Akeanon | 232 | 16,566 | 9.1% | 50.8% |
| Tagalog | 135 | 12,871 | 7.0% | 53.6% |
Kinaray-a schools have the highest share at grade level and Akeanon schools the highest share struggling; these differences belong to the schools and places using each language, not to the languages. Where a school reports both, the Grade 2 gap (Filipino at grade level minus Mother Tongue at grade level) is -2.0 points, against -0.8 nationally: Filipino trails the home language a little more here. CRLA by Language covers the whole country.
Where struggling readers are concentrated in Region VI
On the map, shading marks the empirical Bayes share of struggling readers in each of Region VI’s 101 municipalities and cities, in the national map’s seven color classes. The results are about places, not individual children.
Counted in learners, struggling readers are most numerous in Iloilo City (Capital), Iloilo (2,964); City of Passi, Iloilo (534); Carles, Iloilo (386); Caluya, Antique (364); Malay, Aklan (340). Iloilo City’s count is far larger than any other place’s. Most of the places with the highest estimated shares are in Iloilo, counting Iloilo City: Iloilo City (Capital), Iloilo (17.6%); San Dionisio, Iloilo (16.4%); San Rafael, Iloilo (14.7%); San Remigio, Antique (14.7%); Caluya, Antique (13.9%).
A local Moran’s I test at FDR 5% looks for neighbors more alike than chance would make them. It flags 0 places as high-high and 9 as low-low, and those low-low places cover much of Capiz, Roxas City included. Nationally, Capiz is among the provinces with the most low-low places: Bohol (41), Leyte (27), Batangas (14), Mountain Province (9), Capiz (9), Southern Leyte (9).
Early childhood: stunting and day care centers
Stunting, too little height for age, marks long-term undernutrition. In Operation Timbang Plus (OPT Plus) 2025, the annual weighing and measuring of young children in every barangay, coordinated with the National Nutrition Council, 3.2% of the region’s 116,905 measured children aged 0–2 were stunted, against 4.3% nationally. The table shows stunting, barangays without a child development center (CDC) and struggling readers in each province.
| Province or highly urbanized city | Children 0–2 measured | Stunted | Barangays without a CDC | Learners struggling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aklan | 14,069 | 3.2% | 4 of 327 | 8.1% |
| Antique | 16,880 | 6.5% | 42 of 590 | 7.7% |
| Capiz | 19,702 | 1.2% | 46 of 473 | 3.3% |
| Guimaras | 5,066 | 3.2% | 1 of 98 | 4.6% |
| Iloilo | 61,188 | 2.9% | 221 of 1,901 | 10.1% |
Stunting reaches at least half again the national share in Antique (6.5%). Capiz has both the least stunting and the lowest share of struggling readers, but the children measured for stunting in 2025 were toddlers, not the Grade 1–3 learners assessed on the CRLA. On the DILG list, 314 of 3,389 barangays (9.3%) lack a CDC, against 10.9% nationally, most of them in Iloilo. Whether the two measures go together across the country is tested in Stunting, Day Care Centers and Early Reading.
School resources
These inputs describe schools in SY 2023-24, two school years before the CRLA, and come from DepEd’s public files. The table compares Region VI’s schools with the country’s: median learners per teacher and per classroom, then the share of schools with each facility or feature.
| School input (SY 2023-24) | Region VI | Philippines |
|---|---|---|
| Learners per teacher (elementary) | 19.2 | 22.8 |
| Learners per classroom (elementary) | 20.0 | 25.8 |
| Schools with internet | 73.0% | 76.3% |
| Schools with electricity | 99.0% | 97.6% |
| Schools with a water supply | 99.0% | 97.8% |
| Schools with no functional toilet | 0.7% | 2.3% |
| Schools with multigrade classes | 12.8% | 15.3% |
Region VI’s median school is less crowded than the country’s: 19.2 learners per teacher against 22.8, and 20.0 per classroom against 25.8. Nearly all schools have electricity and water, and internet is a little below the national share.
Region VI’s own model sets each school beside others in the same division: an odds ratio above 1 means more struggling readers, below 1 fewer. Its 95% intervals are widened because results vary between schools more than chance alone would produce. Each of these inputs has a 95% interval that excludes 1: learners per teacher: odds ratio 1.24 (1.13–1.38); learners per classroom: odds ratio 1.32 (1.21–1.44); buildings needing major repair: odds ratio 0.94 (0.90–0.99); school size: odds ratio 0.79 (0.74–0.85); urban barangay: odds ratio 0.84 (0.74–0.95). Learners per teacher, learners per classroom and school size are logged, and each of them, like the share of buildings needing major repair, is taken per standard deviation; urban barangay compares urban with rural schools.
More learners per teacher and per classroom go with more struggling readers, and larger schools and urban schools with fewer. The national model’s interval includes 1 for some of these inputs, so those results are particular to the region: buildings needing major repair; urban barangay. The buildings result runs against expectation and is better treated as a pattern to check. Because Iloilo City is a division of its own, the division term absorbs its high share, and the urban result compares urban and rural schools within each division. School Resources and CRLA Reading Results sets out the national model; all of these are associations.
School heads
In DepEd’s SY 2023-24 personnel file, 33.3% of Region VI schools report a School Principal position, against 40.7% nationally, and 35.4% have no head position, where a teacher-in-charge or officer-in-charge leads the school. As reported, schools with and without a principal have almost the same share of struggling readers: 8.1% and 8.3%.
Those raw shares ignore school size and location; CRLA Results in Schools With and Without a Principal compares like with like nationally.
Programs recorded in Region VI
Region VI has 4 programs on the EDCOM II dashboard’s list of NGO and corporate programs. Their categories are Nutrition (3); Childcare (1), and their types Stunting Prevention Program (2); Nutrition Counseling for Mothers (1); Childcare Center Supplies & Equipment (1). The list has no literacy program for the region.
Region VI accounts for 4.0% of the programs listed nationally and 3.2% of struggling readers. Programs missing from the dashboard do not appear here, so the count is a floor, not a census; Literacy and Nutrition Programs Compared With Need compares the regions.
What this means for school heads in Region VI
For school heads in Iloilo City, the division’s share is a reason to look closely at Grade 1 records and reading support, school by school. How to Read a School’s CRLA Results Fairly shows how to compare a school with others of its size.
Elsewhere in the region, results ahead of the country still leave Grade 1 with the most struggling readers. Divisions with low shares, such as Capiz and Roxas City, can share how they screen and support early readers, although the data cannot say what produces their results.
How these numbers were made
Every learner is counted in one block only: Grade 1 Mother Tongue for Grade 1, Grade 2 Filipino for Grade 2 and Grade 3 English for Grade 3. Division and municipal shares are empirical Bayes estimates, and the school-input model is a binomial regression with a fixed effect for each division, its intervals widened for overdispersion (quasi-binomial). The estimation steps are explained in CRLA End-of-Year Results SY 2025-26: All 18 Regions and How to Read a School’s CRLA Results Fairly.
Limits
Teachers give the CRLA, and the results are as entered on the dashboard. The school inputs describe SY 2023-24, not the year of the assessment. Maps, provinces and language groups describe places and schools rather than children, and the stunting data concern toddlers. Nothing here shows cause and effect.
Frequently asked questions
Is Region VI above the national average in CRLA reading?
Yes. By the end of SY 2025-26, Region VI had 53.4% of its Grade 1–3 learners reading at grade level, against 47.6% nationally, and 8.2% struggling, against 10.0%.
How does Iloilo City compare with the rest of Region VI?
Among Region VI’s divisions, the highest share of struggling readers is Iloilo City (17.6%), and the city counts more struggling readers than any other municipality or city in the region. The data describe the city’s schools as a group and cannot say why its share is high.
Which Region VI division has the lowest share of struggling readers?
The lowest share is in Capiz (3.2%), and the low-low places on the map are all in Capiz. Roxas City is also low.
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.