Authors

Carie Justine P. Estrellado, PhD
Tayabas Western Academy
Candelaria, Quezon
Email: cjpe.twa@gmail.com

Mark Paul O. Altarejos, MBA*
Tayabas Western Academy
Candelaria, Quezon
Email: markaltarejos.sedi@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper deconstructs the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program (Republic Act No. 12028) through the lens of dialectical hegemony. It posits that ARAL is a strategic apparatus. It actively manages the core contradiction in Philippine education. This is the tension between the emancipatory potential of critical pedagogy and the instrumental demands of neoliberal performativity. The government frames ARAL as an equitable response, aligning it with a necessary “economic development mantra.” It secures crucial public consent. Yet, we cannot take away the fact that the state struggles economically and urgently need a functional workforce. The focus on “recovery” and “deficit” is a pejorative discursive strategy. It diverts attention from chronic structural flaws. It places the failure onto the student or the pandemic. Analysis reveals a structural subordination. While the program rhetorically commits to developing “critical and analytical thinking skills,” its operational focus is rigidly on the measurable mastery of Essential Learning Competencies (ELCs) in reading and math. This prioritization functionally reduces critique to a standardized, testable skill. It ensures the rapid production of minimum-level human capital necessary for the global labor market. The state’s maneuver, strategically containing uncertainty through bureaucratic control, maintains the system’s stability. The ARAL Program is not a revolution against inequity. It is a managed retreat. It is a necessary fix that structurally reaffirms existing economic and class divisions. The philosophical lens exposes political and economic function. It challenges the program’s perceived nobility.

Keywords: ARAL program, Dialectical hegemony, Department of Education, Republic Act No. 12028

*Corresponding author

DOI: http://doi.org/10.69651/PIJHSS0404557

Recommended citation:

Estrellado, C. J. P., & Altarejos, M. P. O. (2025). The Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program on the Discourse of Dialectical Hegemony. Pantao (The International Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences) 4 (4), 6052-6063. http://doi.org/10.69651/PIJHSS0404557

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