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GMA Network
27-05-2025
- General
- GMA Network
Pasay, San Juan score highest literacy rate in 2024 —PSA
Pasay City scored the highest basic literacy rate while San Juan City recorded the highest functional literacy rate among highly urbanized cities in 2024, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Based on PSA's 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) report, basic literacy is the ability of a person to read and write a simple message with understanding and to compute or perform basic mathematical operations. Meanwhile, functional literacy is the ability of a person to read, write, compute, and comprehend. This skill includes a higher level of comprehension. In the 2024 FLEMMS, Pasay logged a 96.2% basic literacy rate. This means around 96 of 100 individuals five years old and above in the city can read, write, and compute. Pasay was followed by Cagayan de Oro City (96.1%), San Juan City (95.50%), Pasig City (95.50%), and Mandaue City (95.2%). Meanwhile, San Juan recorded a 94.5% functional literacy rate, or about 95 out of 100 individuals in the city can read, write, compute, and comprehend. San Juan was followed by Baguio City (89.8%), Pasig City (89.1%), Pateros (88.1%), and Makati City (87.3%). Among the provinces in the Philippines, Apayao garnered the highest basic literacy with 95.2%, while Benguet recorded the highest functional literacy with 87.9%. Completing the Top 5 provinces with the highest basic literacy are Romblon (94.6%), Nueva Ecija (94.23%), Bohol (94.22%), and Rizal (94.20%). Second to the highest functional literacy rate is Rizal (82.1%), followed by Romblon (81.9%), Batangas (81.3%), and Siquijor (80.0%). 2024 FLEMMS reported that for every 100 individuals 5 years old and over, about 95 individuals can read, write, and compute in Apayao. Out of 100 individuals 10 to 64 years old, about 88 can read, write, compute, and comprehend in Benguet. Meanwhile, Tawi-Tawi (30.5%), Davao Occidental (21%), Basilan (19.8%), Northern Samar (19.5%), and Sarangani (15.7%) got the highest illiteracy rates, respectively. The FLEMMS is a household-based nationwide survey conducted every five years. The 2024 FLEMMS is the seventh in the series of literacy surveys in the country that started in 1989. It was conducted from September to October 2024.—LDF, GMA Integrated News
South China Morning Post
05-05-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
Philippines faces educational crisis with 18 million graduates ‘functionally illiterate'
A staggering 18 million high school graduates in the Philippines have been found to be 'functionally illiterate' – a revelation that lawmakers and education experts say exposes systemic failings in the country's school system that must urgently be addressed. Advertisement The figure was disclosed by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) during a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Lawmakers reviewed the results of the agency's 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey, a nationwide assessment of basic and functional literacy levels across the population conducted every five years. Last year's edition surveyed 572,910 individuals from 177,656 sample households throughout the country. 'If you look at the 2024 figure, there are 18 million students who the PSA detected are [junior and senior] high school graduates, but they are not functionally literate. Meaning they graduated from our basic education system, but they cannot read, they cannot understand and comprehend a simple story,' said Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate basic education committee. Advertisement Around 79 million people were considered to be functionally literate in the 2019 edition of the report, which defined the term as having reading, writing and numeracy skills.
South China Morning Post
05-05-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
Philippines faces educational crisis with 18 million graduates functionally illiterate
A staggering 18 million high school graduates in the Philippines have been found to be 'functionally illiterate' – a revelation that lawmakers and education experts say exposes systemic failings in the country's school system that must urgently be addressed. Advertisement The figure was disclosed by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) during a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Lawmakers reviewed the results of the agency's 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey, a nationwide assessment of basic and functional literacy levels across the population conducted every five years. Last year's edition surveyed 572,910 individuals from 177,656 sample households throughout the country. 'If you look at the 2024 figure, there are 18 million students who the PSA detected are [junior and senior] high school graduates, but they are not functionally literate. Meaning they graduated from our basic education system, but they cannot read, they cannot understand and comprehend a simple story,' said senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate basic education committee. Advertisement Around 79 million were considered to be functionally literate in the 2019 edition of the report, which defined the term as having reading, writing and numeracy skills.
Filipino Times
01-05-2025
- General
- Filipino Times
Over 18M high school graduates in PH have poor comprehension, PSA finds
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.
