PSA study: 19M senior high school grads ‘functional illiterate’

CHALLENGES AHEAD Graduating students of Pasay City East High School gather for their commencement ceremony at Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City in this photo taken on May 28, 2024. Yet another study, one presented in the Senate on Wednesday, showed “the gravity of the situation” in the country’s basic education system, as a senator put it. —Richard A. Reyes

MANILA, Philippines — Some 18.9 million Filipinos who completed secondary education between 2019 and 2024 may be considered “functional illiterate” as they still have problems with reading comprehension despite years of schooling.

This was according to a periodic study conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the results of which were tackled in a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the results of the PSA’s Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Study (FLEMMS) should jolt policymakers into working together to come up with a national strategy to address “the gravity of our situation now.”

Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate basic education committee, said the problem of basic literacy was one of the factors behind the high poverty incidence in several provinces.

READ: Reaching higher levels of comprehension

By his own estimate, using the PSA data and other available information, the senator said that as of last year, about 24.82 million Filipinos age 10 to 64 were considered functionally illiterate, or individuals who could read, write, and compute but could not understand what they read.

Gatchalian, who is also the cochair of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2), said another 5.86 million Filipinos belonging to the same age group are “basic illiterate,” or unable to read, write, and compute.

According to educator and Inquirer columnist Lynn Pinugu, “In more concrete terms, someone who is considered functionally illiterate has very basic reading and writing skills but is unable to apply them effectively in everyday situations and contexts.”

“For example, they may be able to write their full name, but they cannot properly fill out a job application or understand complex written instructions,” she said.

“This poses significant challenges because of their inability to perform more complex tasks or navigate challenges that require higher literacy skills. This limits the employment opportunities they have access to, and consequently, they are at greater risk of poverty and social exclusion. They may also be vulnerable to exploitation and often struggle to access health-related information, resulting in poor health decision-making,” Pinugu said when sought for comment on the PSA study.

“More importantly, functional illiteracy usually leads to an intergenerational disadvantage—wherein children who grew up in a low-literacy household usually experience educational difficulties themselves,” said Pinugu, cofounder and executive director of Mano Amiga, a nongovernmental organization promoting education in poor communities.

Updated definition

At Wednesday’s Senate hearing, Adrian Cerezo, the PSA assistant national statistician, said the latest survey, which the agency has been conducting every five years, changed the definition of functionally literate.

Before the 2024 FLEMMS, he said, the phrase only referred to individuals who can read, write and compute. But the PSA added comprehension as a basic skill for a person to be considered functionally literate.

“Comprehension means a high level of understanding, which means being able to deduce or [piece] information together to be able to provide new information,” Cerezo said.

A total of 572,910 individuals from 177,656 households took part in the PSA study.

The PSA official said only 79 percent of senior high school (SHS) graduates in 2024 were functionally literate.

“Based on your FLEMMS, you’ve detected that 21 percent of our senior high school graduates are not functionally literate. That’s quite concerning,” Gatchalian said.

Can’t get ‘a simple story’

“That means that one out of five of our [high school] graduates cannot comprehend and understand a simple story, and that’s something that we need to address.”

“No one should graduate from our basic education system who is not functional literate,” the senator stressed.

Poorest provinces

Gatchalian said local government units should make use of the PSA survey in crafting their own literacy programs.

He noted that the country’s poorest provinces, like Tawi-Tawi and Davao Occidental, had also recorded the highest functional illiteracy rate.

On the other hand, provinces that topped the PSA literacy list, such as Cavite and Bataan, have lower poverty incidence rates, he added.