Basic literacy among Filipinos is at 90%

The basic literacy rate among those five years old and older Filipinos was estimated at 90%, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported, citing data from latest survey results.

According to the PSA’s 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), about 93.1 million Filipinos out of 103.5 million of the total population are considered to be literate on a basic level.

The PSA defines “basic literacy” as the ability of a person to read and write a simple message in any language or dialect with understanding, and to compute or perform basic mathematical operations.

On the other hand, functional literacy is classified as the ability of a person to read, write, compute and comprehend and includes higher level of comprehension skills, such as integrating two or more pieces of information and making inferences based on the given information.

Functional literacy rate was at 70.8% or about 60.2 million Filipinos out of 85 million aged 10 to 64, the PSA said.

Females recorded a basic literacy rate of 90.9% while males posted a basic literacy rate of 89%.

Those in the 20-24 age group were the most literate at the basic level with a 96.1% rate, while those aged 60 and over were the least at 76.2%.

Seven out of 18 regions posted higher basic literacy rates than the national average.

Central Luzon led with a basic literacy rate of 92.8%. It was followed by Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR, 92.7%), Calabarzon (92.6%), Central Visayas (92.1%),

National Capital Region (NCR, 92%), Northern Mindanao (90.8%), and Davao Region (90.2%).

Meanwhile, four regions surpassed the functional literacy rates at the national level. These were CAR (81.2%), NCR (79.9%), Calabarzon (77.3%), and Central Luzon (73%).

The FLEMMS is conducted every five years, and the latest edition is the seventh in the series of literacy surveys that started in 1989. The 2024 survey was conducted between September to October 2024.

Source: Business World

19M illiterate Filipinos should jolt authorities to prioritize education

A report showing that about 19 million Filipino high school and senior high school graduates are illiterate should be considered as a “national emergency” and prompt authorities to prioritize education reforms, a congressman said.

Around 18.9 million Filipinos who completed secondary education from 2019 to 2024 may be considered illiterate, as they struggle to read and comprehend a simple story, according to a Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report discussed in a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

“This is not just a crisis — it’s a national emergency,” Party-list Rep. France L. Castro said in a statement. “When one out of five senior high school graduates cannot comprehend a simple story despite years of schooling, we are looking at a systemic failure that threatens our country’s future.”

A 2022 World Bank report showed that nine of 10 Filipinos are unable to read and understand age-appropriate text at age 10.

“It’s alarming that despite the K-12 program, millions of young Filipinos still struggle to understand what they read,” Ms. Castro said.

A new curriculum, introduced in August 2023, sought to streamline learners’ education by focusing on reading, literacy, and numeracy in the first three schooling years of a student.

In 2024, Education Secretary Juan Edgardo M. Angara said the curriculum, launched by Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio during her stint as education chief, will continue to be revised based on the experience of teachers and students.

The Philippine government’s failure to ensure a sufficient budget to the education sector have left schools underfunded and teachers with inadequate salaries, Antonio L. Tinio, a party-list nominee in the midterm elections, said in the same statement.

“The government has consistently failed to meet the UN-recommended education budget allocation of 6% of GDP,” he said in Filipino. “The truth is simple: if investment in education is lacking, teachers and education support personnel receive inadequate salaries, and in turn, students learn less.”

The Philippines only allocated 3.6% of its GDP to education in 2022 according to World Bank data, below the 4-6% benchmark set by the Incheon Declaration.

“We need to double our current education budget to address classroom shortages, hire more qualified teachers, increase the salaries of teachers and education support personnel, provide quality learning materials, and implement effective literacy interventions,” said Ms. Castro.

In 2025, the combined budget of the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and state universities and colleges stood at P913.3 billion.

Meanwhile, an education advocacy group on Thursday said that political candidates for this year’s midterm election should prioritize education in their policy agenda.

“It is time to rise above politics and champion education. We urge the candidates to present concrete plans and real solutions that tackle the learning crisis, workforce readiness, and systemic reforms,” Philippine Business for Education Executive Director Hanibal Camua said in a separate statement.

“Education agencies cannot fix this crisis alone — and without bold, sustained support from elected leaders at every level of government, our most critical goals will remain out of reach,” he added.

Source: Business World

World Bank: PHL needs reforms in education, health

The Philippines should focus on reforms that will improve learning and health outcomes, as well as boost private sector competitiveness to sustain economic growth, a World Bank official said.

“I see the Philippines has good opportunities. But of course, [it] will also need to invest in reform efforts and continue boosting with reforms and opening up its market,” World Bank Country Director for the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei Zafer Mustafaoğlu said.

He said these reforms are needed for the Philippines to sustain growth amid global uncertainty.

He pointed to reforms that would improve health and learning outcomes, enhance competitiveness of the private sector, boost community resilience and address gaps in infrastructure.

The Philippines has seen low learning outcomes, especially after the strict lockdowns during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

“We see that at the age of 10… Almost 90% of them are having difficulty in comprehending what they read. This, of course, is an area that we are focusing very much on improving educational outcomes,” Mr. Mustafaoğlu said.

A World Bank report previously showed that around 91% of 10-year-olds in the Philippines cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text, which is known as “learning poverty.”

Mr. Mustafaoğlu also noted that a child born in the Philippines today will be able to achieve only around 52% of their productive potential by age 18 due to the lack of education and adequate health services.

The Philippines is seeking a $600-million loan from the World Bank to fund a project aimed at improving learning outcomes in public schools.

“We are focusing on improving regulatory business environments, its implementation, deepening financial markets that both provide access to finance but also stability, and also firm entry into the markets to create more product firms and help them grow,” Mr. Mustafaoğlu said.

He said the World Bank is also prioritizing funding projects that will support resilient communities amid climate risks, as well as projects that will address infrastructure gaps.

“We all know that the Philippines suffers from infrastructure gaps, both in terms of physical renewable energy and digital transformation,” Mr. Mustafaoğlu said.

Asked about the possible impact of the global trade war on the Philippines, he said the economy is still expected to be one of the top performers in the region.

“If you look at its growth performance over the past decade, it did very well and also it created jobs. It is a good opportunity for its future. It is a young population… We expect the Philippines to continue growing in the next years,” Mr. Mustafaoğlu said

“And in that sense, it is likely to achieve its upper middle-income status by 2026.”

The World Bank expects the Philippines to be the second-fastest growing economy in the Southeast Asian region until 2026.

The Philippines is expected to grow 6.1% this year, just behind Vietnam at 6.6% and ahead of Cambodia (5.5%), Indonesia (5.1%), Malaysia (4.5%), Laos (3.7%), Thailand (2.9%), and Myanmar (2%).

Source: Business World