More than 18 million high school graduates in the Philippines are considered “functional illiterate” or have poor comprehension and struggle to understand even simple information.
This was revealed during a Senate basic education committee hearing on the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS).
According to a post by the Senate of the Philippines on Facebook, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian stressed the need for targeted programs to solve this problem. “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,” Gatchalian said.
PSA confirms alarming trend
PSA Assistant National Statistician Adrian Cerezo agreed with Gatchalian’s observation. “Accurate, sir,” Cerezo replied. “We note that there are actually a significant number who are passing or graduating but are not really functional literate.”
Gatchalian also emphasized, “That’s quite concerning. That means one out of five of our graduates cannot comprehend and understand a simple story, and that’s something that we need to address.”
“That’s the problem of basic education because paano sila nag-graduate nang hindi sila functional literate? Iba ‘yung hindi pumasok eh, iba rin yung pumasok ka but naka-graduate ka but you’re not functional literate,” Gatchalian said.
“Should not happen. No one should graduate in our basic education system, no one will graduate in our basic education system that will not be functional literate… DepEd should already be proactive in making sure that no one will graduate not being functional literate,” he added.
What changed in the literacy definition
In 2019, those who graduated from junior high or high school were automatically counted as functionally literate. But the 2024 FLEMMS now defines functional literacy as the ability to read, write, compute, and comprehend.
With this change, the number of functional literates dropped from 79 million in 2019 to 60 million in 2024, showing that many graduates still cannot understand basic texts.
Top provinces with the most illiterate residents
Tawi-Tawi topped the list with 67% of its population considered functionally illiterate. It was followed by Davao Occidental (53%), Zamboanga del Sur (49%), Northern Samar (48%), Basilan (48%), Sarangani (48%), Western Samar (46%), Agusan del Norte (44%), Sultan Kudarat (44%), and Lanao del Norte (44%).
Officials hope this data from the PSA will guide local governments to create urgent programs that will improve reading and comprehension in schools.
