CRLA results for SY 2025-26 in Region VIII (Eastern Visayas) are among the strongest of any region. On the Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment (CRLA), the reading screen given to public school learners in Grades 1–3, 55.6% of the region’s 245,652 learners read at grade level, against 47.6% nationally. Only 7.2% were struggling readers, against 10.0%. On struggling readers it ranks 4 of the 18 regions, where the first has the lowest share.
These results come from a region with one of the highest stunting shares among young children, many multigrade schools and comparatively few principals. The picture is also uneven: Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran and Eastern Samar report low shares of struggling readers, while Northern Samar and the cities of Catbalogan and Tacloban stand well above the regional figure. Region VIII is also one of the five regions in DepEd’s selected-school CRLA file, so its gains across the school year can be traced.
Key findings
- 7.2% of Region VIII’s learners were struggling readers, -2.7 points from the national 10.0%, and 55.6% read at grade level.
- Region VIII is above the national share at grade level in all five blocks, by margins ranging from Grade 3 Filipino (+5.5 points) to Grade 1 Mother Tongue (+11.9 points).
- Division shares run from Leyte (3.0%) to Catbalogan City (18.8%); those more than five points above the regional share are Catbalogan City (18.8%); Northern Samar (14.8%); Tacloban City (13.5%), and Northern Samar (5,655 struggling readers) has the largest count.
- Among children aged 0–2 who were measured, 9.7% were stunted, against 4.3% nationally, and every province is at least one and a half times the national share: Biliran (8.3%); Eastern Samar (13.1%); Leyte (9.3%); Northern Samar (10.5%); Samar (Western Samar) (9.4%); Southern Leyte (7.3%).
- The median elementary school has 18.5 learners per teacher, against 22.8 nationally, and 33.1% of schools offer multigrade classes, against 15.3%.
- The region holds 13.0% of the programs on the EDCOM II list but 3.5% of the country’s struggling readers.
- Matched schools in DepEd’s selected-school file moved from 12.7% to 53.3% of learners at grade level over the year, and from 42.5% to 8.3% struggling.
CRLA reading levels by grade and language in Region VIII
The table shows the five CRLA levels for each grade-and-language block, with regional and national totals below. Struggling readers are those at the two Emerging levels.
| Grade and language | Learners | Low Emerging | High Emerging | Developing | Transitioning | At Grade Level | Struggling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 Mother Tongue | 74,873 | 5.9% | 4.6% | 10.1% | 22.1% | 57.4% | 10.5% |
| Grade 2 Mother Tongue | 79,666 | 4.2% | 2.2% | 9.4% | 29.3% | 54.9% | 6.5% |
| Grade 2 Filipino | 82,607 | 3.7% | 2.0% | 9.0% | 32.0% | 53.3% | 5.7% |
| Grade 3 Filipino | 88,061 | 2.8% | 1.3% | 5.6% | 34.1% | 56.3% | 4.1% |
| Grade 3 English | 88,172 | 3.9% | 1.9% | 6.8% | 31.2% | 56.2% | 5.9% |
| Region VIII, all learners | 245,652 | 4.5% | 2.8% | 8.5% | 28.7% | 55.6% | 7.2% |
| Philippines, all learners | 5,127,670 | 6.9% | 3.1% | 10.4% | 32.0% | 47.6% | 10.0% |
The lead is largest where learners start. Grade 1 Mother Tongue (+11.9 points) has 57.4% at grade level, against 45.4% nationally, and its struggling share is 10.5%, against 14.4%. Grade 3 Filipino (+5.5 points) has the narrowest margin. Every block also has a smaller Low Emerging share than the same block nationally.
Schools divisions in Region VIII
For each of the 13 divisions, the table gives an empirical Bayes estimate, adjusted slightly toward the national share when learners are few, and a rank among the 232 divisions, both with 95% intervals.
| Division | Schools | Learners | Struggling readers | Share struggling | Estimate (95% interval) | National rank of 232 (95% interval) | National funnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baybay City | 68 | 5,244 | 198 | 3.8% | 3.8% (3.3%–4.3%) | 23 (20–35) | within limits |
| Biliran | 123 | 10,935 | 436 | 4.0% | 4.0% (3.6%–4.4%) | 29 (23–35) | within limits |
| Borongan City | 51 | 3,680 | 112 | 3.0% | 3.1% (2.6%–3.7%) | 17 (12–23) | within limits |
| Calbayog City | 157 | 11,336 | 1,055 | 9.3% | 9.3% (8.8%–9.8%) | 136 (117–144) | within limits |
| Catbalogan City | 50 | 6,095 | 1,146 | 18.8% | 18.8% (17.8%–19.7%) | 219 (215–221) | within limits |
| Eastern Samar | 417 | 22,498 | 1,005 | 4.5% | 4.5% (4.2%–4.7%) | 36 (33–41) | within limits |
| Leyte | 1,111 | 76,223 | 2,270 | 3.0% | 3.0% (2.9%–3.1%) | 16 (14–18) | within limits |
| Maasin City | 63 | 3,316 | 254 | 7.7% | 7.7% (6.8%–8.6%) | 84 (71–112) | within limits |
| Northern Samar | 520 | 38,095 | 5,655 | 14.8% | 14.8% (14.5%–15.2%) | 206 (201–208) | within limits |
| Ormoc City | 81 | 11,796 | 364 | 3.1% | 3.1% (2.8%–3.4%) | 18 (14–21) | within limits |
| Samar (Western Samar) | 671 | 29,911 | 3,095 | 10.3% | 10.3% (10.0%–10.7%) | 152 (147–157) | within limits |
| Southern Leyte | 297 | 15,065 | 624 | 4.1% | 4.2% (3.9%–4.5%) | 33 (25–36) | within limits |
| Tacloban City | 47 | 11,458 | 1,551 | 13.5% | 13.5% (12.9%–14.1%) | 191 (188–198) | within limits |
Leyte, the largest division, has the lowest share and Catbalogan City the highest, a range of 3.0% to 18.8%; several other Leyte and Samar divisions, Eastern Samar among them, sit near Leyte. Well above the regional share are Catbalogan City (18.8%); Northern Samar (14.8%); Tacloban City (13.5%), so the divide is not simply Samar against Leyte.
The national funnel plot, whose limits around the national share allow for the usual spread between divisions, puts 0 of these divisions beyond its 95% limits.
Languages of instruction
The table shows the 4 languages of instruction reported by enough Region VIII schools, led by Waray (68% of schools). Waray-medium schools report a higher struggling share and a lower share at grade level than Sinugbuanong Binisaya schools, which serve Cebuano-speaking areas such as Southern Leyte. The language is the school’s, not each learner’s.
| Language of instruction | Schools | Learners | Share struggling | At Grade Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waray | 2,489 | 162,970 | 8.7% | 51.9% |
| Sinugbuanong Binisaya | 1,034 | 74,462 | 4.2% | 63.2% |
| Tagalog | 108 | 6,881 | 4.1% | 60.6% |
| Inabaknon | 12 | 592 | 6.8% | 55.7% |
Among schools with Grade 2 results in both languages, the Grade 2 Filipino share at grade level differs from the Grade 2 Mother Tongue share by -1.7 points (Filipino minus Mother Tongue), against a national gap of -0.8. RA 12027 of 2024 has discontinued the mother tongue as the medium of instruction in Kindergarten to Grade 3 outside monolingual classes that meet the law’s requirements, so the gap is worth following; CRLA by Language has the national picture.
Where struggling readers are concentrated in Region VIII
Each of Region VIII’s 143 municipalities and cities is colored on the map by its estimated share of struggling readers, using the national scale. Small places are pulled toward the national share so a few results do not decide their color. The map compares places, not children.
Counts of struggling readers are highest in Tacloban City (Capital), Leyte (1,551); City of Catbalogan (Capital), Samar (Western Samar) (1,146); Catarman (Capital), Northern Samar (1,061); Calbayog City, Samar (Western Samar) (1,055); Las Navas, Northern Samar (514). By share, every one of the five highest is in Northern Samar: Silvino Lobos, Northern Samar (25.7%); Lope De Vega, Northern Samar (22.8%); Pambujan, Northern Samar (21.5%); San Roque, Northern Samar (21.5%); Las Navas, Northern Samar (21.3%).
A cluster test, local Moran’s I with a 5% false discovery rate, finds 40 low-low municipalities, mostly in Leyte and Southern Leyte, two of the provinces with the most such places nationally, and 0 high-high ones: Northern Samar’s high shares sit side by side, but the test does not flag them. CRLA Reading Hotspots describes the method in full.
Early childhood: stunting and day care centers
The dashboard holds two early-childhood measures, shown here by province: children aged 0–2 found stunted in OPT Plus 2025, overseen by the National Nutrition Council, and barangays on the DILG list of those lacking a child development center (CDC), or barangay day care center.
| Province or highly urbanized city | Children 0–2 measured | Stunted | Barangays without a CDC | Learners struggling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biliran | 5,115 | 8.3% | 7 of 132 | 4.0% |
| Eastern Samar | 11,403 | 13.1% | 89 of 597 | 4.3% |
| Leyte | 49,600 | 9.3% | 226 of 1,616 | 4.2% |
| Northern Samar | 19,304 | 10.5% | 34 of 569 | 14.8% |
| Samar (Western Samar) | 24,279 | 9.4% | 95 of 951 | 11.2% |
| Southern Leyte | 7,865 | 7.3% | 40 of 500 | 4.8% |
Of 117,566 children measured, 9.7% were stunted, against 4.3% nationally; the highest province is Eastern Samar (13.1%). On the DILG list, 491 of the region’s 4,365 barangays lack a CDC, or 11.2%, a little above the national 10.9%.
Region VIII thus pairs one of the highest stunting shares among the regions with one of the highest shares of learners at grade level, and Eastern Samar, the province with the highest stunting, has one of its lower struggling shares. This is an observation about places, not children: the toddlers measured in 2025 are not the learners assessed, and the data cannot say why the measures diverge. For the national test of that link, see Stunting, Day Care Centers and Early Reading.
School resources
DepEd’s SY 2023-24 school files are the source of these inputs, so they describe schools two school years before the CRLA.
| School input (SY 2023-24) | Region VIII | Philippines |
|---|---|---|
| Learners per teacher (elementary) | 18.5 | 22.8 |
| Learners per classroom (elementary) | 20.9 | 25.8 |
| Schools with internet | 70.4% | 76.3% |
| Schools with electricity | 98.4% | 97.6% |
| Schools with a water supply | 97.9% | 97.8% |
| Schools with no functional toilet | 1.7% | 2.3% |
| Schools with multigrade classes | 33.1% | 15.3% |
Classes in Region VIII are less crowded than the national median. Its median elementary school serves 18.5 learners per teacher and 20.9 per classroom, where the national medians are 22.8 and 25.8. Multigrade classes are far more common: 33.1% of schools offer them, against 15.3% nationally.
A regional model compares schools in the same division; an odds ratio above 1 means more struggling readers, and the intervals are stretched for results that vary more than a plain binomial model assumes. In Region VIII the 95% interval excludes 1 for these 5 inputs, listed with their odds ratios: learners per teacher: odds ratio 1.45 (1.34–1.57); buildings needing major repair: odds ratio 1.04 (1.003–1.09); school size: odds ratio 0.69 (0.65–0.74); electricity: odds ratio 0.64 (0.48–0.85); income class 2nd: odds ratio 1.17 (1.04–1.33). Learners per teacher and school size are logged; both, and the share of buildings needing major repair, are taken per standard deviation, and the income-class term compares second-class with first-class municipalities. More learners per teacher, more buildings needing repair and a second-class municipality go with more struggling readers, while larger schools and electricity go with fewer. The national model’s interval includes 1 for buildings, and its second-class result points the other way, so these belong to the region: buildings needing major repair; income class 2nd. The buildings interval only just excludes 1. None of this shows what changing an input would do; see School Resources and CRLA Reading Results.
School heads
DepEd’s SY 2023-24 files show a School Principal position in only 28.2% of Region VIII’s schools, against 40.7% nationally, while 37.9% had no head position and relied on a teacher-in-charge. Before any adjustment, the struggling share was 6.0% among learners in schools with a principal and 8.6% among those in other schools. The national comparison that adjusts for size and location is in CRLA Results in Schools With and Without a Principal.
Programs recorded in Region VIII
Region VIII is well represented on the EDCOM II list of programs reported by NGOs and corporate foundations: its 13 entries make up 13.0% of the list, while its learners account for 3.5% of the country’s struggling readers. By category, childcare leads: Childcare (7); Literacy (4); Nutrition (2). The types are CDC Facility Upgrade (3); Growth Monitoring & Weighing (2); Literacy Tutoring Program (2); Book/Reading Material Donation (2); Child Development Center (CDC) Establishment (2); Childcare Center Supplies & Equipment (1); Day Care Worker Training (1).
The list holds what organizations reported, not a census, and it does not show results. For the regional comparison, see Literacy and Nutrition Programs Compared With Need.
Start and end of the year
DepEd’s selected-school CRLA file covers five regions, Region VIII among them. DepEd does not say which round that file covers, but its date and results point to the start of the year. Across the Region VIII schools that appear in both files, 12.7% of learners were at grade level at the start and 53.3% at the end, a change of +40.6 points, while the struggling share dropped from 42.5% to 8.3%. Region VIII had the lowest start and the largest gain of the five regions.
These figures cover only the matched schools, which is why the end-of-year share differs from the regional figure above. The evidence for the start-of-year label is in CRLA Start vs End of SY 2025-26 in the Same Schools.
What this means for school heads in Region VIII
A strong regional figure can hide schools that are far behind it, especially in Northern Samar.
- Read your division, not the region. In Northern Samar, Catbalogan City and Tacloban City, the regional share understates the need.
- Plan for multigrade classes. With 33.1% of schools offering them, reading support must work across grades in one room.
- Plan from the start-of-year baseline. The earlier round counted 42.5% of learners in the matched schools as struggling readers, so early-year screening matters.
- Work with barangay nutrition workers. Stunting is high in every province, and they know the children who will enter Kindergarten.
- Ask where programs are. The region has many listed programs; check whether any reach your area.
How these numbers were made
Reading results come from the EDCOM II early-childhood (ECCD) dashboard as of 10 May 2026 and cover public schools at the end of SY 2025-26. So that no child is counted twice, the regional totals take Grade 1 from Mother Tongue, Grade 2 from Filipino and Grade 3 from English. Regions are the PSGC’s 18 regions, and DepEd’s SY 2023-24 files supply school inputs and head categories. The division and municipal estimates are explained in CRLA End-of-Year Results SY 2025-26 and How to Read a School’s CRLA Results Fairly.
Limits
The regional and provincial figures cover almost the whole population of learners, so they need no sampling interval. School inputs are two years older than the results, the model shows associations only, and stunting describes younger children. The start-to-end comparison covers matched schools only. The region’s 1,476 schools with no struggling reader are close to the 1,419 expected, so that data check raises no flag here.
Frequently asked questions
Is Region VIII above the national CRLA average?
Yes. Its share of Grade 1–3 learners at grade level is 55.6%, against 47.6% nationally, and its struggling share is 7.2%, against 10.0%.
Why does Region VIII read well despite high stunting?
The data cannot say. Stunting was measured in toddlers in 2025, while the CRLA assessed older learners, so the two describe different children in the same places. The pairing is an observation about places, and this report tests no explanation for it.
Where are struggling readers concentrated in Region VIII?
In Northern Samar and in the city divisions of Catbalogan and Tacloban. The five municipalities with the highest estimated shares are all in Northern Samar, which also has the most struggling readers of any division.
How much did Region VIII learners improve during SY 2025-26?
Between the two rounds, the matched schools went from 12.7% to 53.3% of learners at grade level. A low start is typical of a beginning-of-year screen, and these schools are not the whole region.
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.