13/05/2025
𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐋 | 𝗜𝗻-𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) revealed in its 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) that approximately 18.9 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64 are functionally illiterate. This alarming figure includes a significant number of high school graduates who, despite completing their education, struggle with reading comprehension, writing, and arithmetic skills. It exposes how the country’s basic education system not only fails its students by not educating them properly but also sabotages broader society by fostering a culture of illiteracy among Filipinos.
The 2024 FLEMMS used a redefined meaning of “functional literacy,” which includes higher-level comprehension skills—unlike the 2019 survey, which automatically classified high school graduates as functionally literate. This redefinition revealed that 21% of senior high school graduates were found to be functionally illiterate.
The education system failed not only by allowing these students to graduate without acquiring essential literacy skills, but also by maintaining shortcomings that hindered their learning experiences, ultimately contributing to this illiteracy. As the backbone of a nation, the education system cannot afford flaws that encourage illiteracy—whether within schools or in society at large.
The basic education system is expected to produce competent—or at the very least, literate—graduates. The fact that it has produced 21% of illiterate graduates proves that the education it provides is fundamentally inadequate.
Proper education is a critical factor in cultivating a developed nation. Curricula should be comprehensive and suited to students’ needs—not outdated, impractical, or overly demanding programs that leave learners more exhausted than educated.
The education system’s failure to deliver proper education undermines the country’s development by compromising the potential of its youth.
The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) Co-Chairs, Rep. Roman Romulo and Sen. Win Gatchalian, have called for intervention programs to assist students who may be illiterate. Rep. Romulo also emphasized the need for curriculum decongestion.
In response to EDCOM 2’s call for reforms, the Department of Education (DepEd) outlined plans to address the issue. These include curriculum decongestion, revisiting grading and retention policies, implementing remediation programs, and piloting functional literacy initiatives for out-of-school youth (OSY).
While solutions are being formulated, it is important to recognize the many existing problems in the education system that contribute to low literacy rates. These issues have long hindered students’ educational experiences—or deprived them of one entirely—and continue to negatively affect the academic competence of Filipino learners.
If the country is to progress, the education system must be fixed first. Many of DepEd’s own policies are problematic and often the root cause of the challenges faced by students and frontline educators. Though the department’s policies and programs aim to improve education quality, poor implementation often renders them ineffective.
The K-12 program is highly demanding yet poorly implemented. Decongested curricula remain stuck in pilot testing when they should already be widely adopted. The Bawat Bata Bumabasa program is inconsistently executed. Catch-up Friday has received backlash from teachers who bear its heavy workload—yet DepEd continues its flawed implementation. These programs, while designed to boost functional literacy, have instead highlighted DepEd’s negligence.
The common thread in the failure of these programs is DepEd’s disregard for the real needs of learners and educators. Failure continues to follow the department’s reform efforts—an outcome that becomes inevitable when solutions are devised without consulting those who experience the problems firsthand, a pattern DepEd repeatedly follows.
Poor implementation stems from persistent systemic issues: lack of infrastructure and resources, deeply rooted inequity, the digital divide, poor coordination within the trifocal system, overburdened educators, and a disconnect between education and employment.
To stop producing illiterate graduates, the education system must launch immediate and effective interventions. Policies and programs meant to improve education must be better implemented, and solutions to systemic problems must be shaped with input from those directly affected.
A country’s education quality is a reflection of its overall condition—economically, politically, and socially.
Education is central to cultivating stability in a nation’s various sectors. When the education system fails, it sabotages the country as a whole—a self-inflicted harm.
cartoon by Jarred Burog
