Over 18 million high school graduates cannot comprehend what they read—PSA
Over 18 million junior and senior high school Filipino graduates are functionally illiterate.
In the recent Senate hearing for Basic Education, the agency presented the staggering number of students who cannot read, write, compute, and comprehend.
The Philippine Statistics Authority's Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey is a national undertaking that gathers crucial data on literacy and educational attainment.
In the 2024 cycle, as presented by Assistant National Statistician Adrian Cerezo, FLEMMS adopted a more rigorous definition of functional literacy, extending beyond basic reading, writing, and numeracy to encompass higher-level comprehension skills. This updated standard resulted in a significant decrease in the reported rate of functional literacy, with only 70% (60.2 million Filipinos) meeting the criteria, compared to the previous 93.1% (79.1 million) who were classified as basically literate. Consequently, 18.9 million Filipinos are now identified as functionally illiterate.
Delving into the data, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had the highest functional illiteracy rate, garnering 16% of their population. The provinces with the highest illiteracy rate were Tawi-Tawi, Davao Occidental, Zamboanga del Sur, Northern Samar, Basilan, Sarangani, Western Samar, Agusan del Norte, Sultan Kudarat, and Lanao del Norte.
Committee head Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said that he "support[s]" the updated definition of literacy as it gives us "a good picture of where we are."
He noted that the country should always strive for functional literacy, saying that the Department of Education should take a "proactive" approach in making sure that all students do not graduate being functionally literate.
“That’s a problem of basic education—because paano sila nag-graduate nang hindi sila functionally literate?… This is where basic education comes in, that 18 million should not happen. No one should graduate in our basic education system [who] will not be functional literate,” he said.
Gatchalian also noted that he witnessed 15-year-olds having a hard time reading simple stories or dealing with simple math problems.
“The very basic goal of basic education is that students become functionally literate. That’s not the case now. In our EDCOM rounds, we have detected kids as old as 15 years old who cannot read a simple story,” he continued.
Link between illiteracy and poverty
Gatchalian firmly asserted the fundamental link between literacy and economic well-being, stating: “As long as there’s somebody who cannot read, write and compute, there will be poverty in our country. We need to break that cycle of poverty by injecting education.”
Underscoring the critical role of data in tackling this issue, Gatchalian emphasized the importance of the FLEMMS, explaining that it provides essential information to government officials and other stakeholders, enabling them to effectively address illiteracy across the Philippines.
“This is a very important survey because now we can come up with intervention programs, especially when the budget season comes in, we can allocate budget to areas that need it the most in addressing illiteracy in their own localities,” Gatchalian said.
In response, Dr. Marilyn Siao, Director IV of the Department of Education (DepEd) said that they are now “reviewing our grading system, our assessment so that we can address this.”
