[ANALYSIS] Functional literacy: More than just a statistic, and what we must do about it

The recently released results from the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) serve as a critical moment for national reflection.

For too long, high reported literacy rates may have masked deeper issues. Recognizing this, the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) has worked collaboratively with the PSA and the Department of Education (DepEd) since 2023 to amend the FLEMMS definition of functional literacy.

Our goal was to move beyond simple reading and writing, advocating for a standard that crucially includes comprehension. This shift, adopted by the PSA through Board Resolution 13-2024, removes the automatic classification of high school or junior high school graduates as functionally literate, a practice which yielded results that were dissonant from what we learned from our performance in all local and international assessments.

This refined definition highlights what functional literacy truly means: the ability to use reading, writing, and numeracy skills to navigate daily life. More than just a statistic, at its heart is the ability of our learners to understand essential information, such as correctly interpreting dosage instructions on medicine bottles, comprehending utility bills, calculating discounts, reading nutritional content in food labels, and accurately filling out application forms for taxes or jobs. It’s about reading maps or understanding basic graphs. As we advocated, functional literacy means equipping citizens for life, not just for lines on a page. We need Filipinos who can read their world.

Using this more accurate measure, the 2024 FLEMMS shows a functional literacy rate of 70.8% for Filipinos aged 10 to 64. This is a significant difference from the 91.6% reported in 2019 under the old definition. As DepEd has clarified, the difference — approximately 18.9 million — represents Filipinos aged 10 to 64 classified as functionally illiterate — meaning they can read, write, and compute but struggle with comprehension, regardless of their educational attainment.

Perhaps the most striking revelation, at least based on the PSA’s recomputation of the 2019 dataset using the new definition, is that functional literacy gaps persist even among college graduates. As we reported in our Year Two Report, only 68-75% of college graduates regardless of age group (18-20 to 61-70 years old) had functional literacy. Similar results were shared by the PSA in the recent Senate hearing using the 2024 FLEMMS data, which we will further study once the agency releases the dataset to enable more granular analysis. These initial findings, however, underscore a critical point: a diploma, even a college degree, is not a foolproof shield against functional illiteracy. 

This is not a sudden problem. As we have repeatedly shared, the findings appear similar regardless of age group and educational attainment, reflecting an education crisis that has actually been decades in the making. Data also suggests a link between nutrition (stunting, wasting) and lower literacy rates, underscoring the need to fix fundamental issues like early childhood nutrition alongside education. As we have advocated continuously, to address this effectively, we must prioritize fixing the foundations. 

DepEd is critical to resolving this through a comprehensive package of reforms. Recent efforts by DepEd including decongesting the curriculum through Matatag (and its full implementation for Kinder to Grade 3 by June), revisiting our grading and retention policies to combat “mass promotion,” implementing targeted literacy-focused remediation programs like Bawat Bata Makababasa, Literacy Remediation, and the ARAL Program, as well as reviewing the incentives and agency targets — putting literacy at the heart of its work — as Secretary Sonny Angara has stressed, are crucial reforms that confront these issues head-on. These interventions will enable us to meet learners where they are, while squarely rectifying system-level impediments that have persisted for at least three decades.

Thankfully, the recent key investments in early childhood education and nutrition, as well as in the historic alignment in teacher education curriculum and the licensure exams — both based on the instructions of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself following the Sectoral Meeting on the EDCOM Year Two Report in March — are also decisive wins that shall build stronger foundations for literacy for our children.

Likewise, the reforms to reduce teacher paperwork, hire administrative officers, ensure that every school will have a principal, and accelerate classroom construction to decongest schools through public-private partnerships (especially for the primary years) will directly resolve barriers that teachers have long lamented as challenges to learning of students.

But stemming the tide of illiteracy also goes beyond DepEd, considering that millions of our graduates have already been in the workforce for years. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and other agencies must work together with the private sector in catering to millions of adult graduates in attaining functional literacy, regardless of age.

We are not alone in facing this; countries like Indonesia, Germany, and Australia have implemented robust adult education programs that could inspire this effort. Acknowledging where we are and deciding to rise to the challenge is an imperative that we face today.

This functional literacy crisis is arguably the challenge of our generation. It is deeply related to malnutrition, impacts opportunity and productivity, and perpetuates cycles of poverty. It is a challenge to our national survival.

The data presents a difficult picture, but provides a clearer baseline for action. Every Filipino possesses potential. Every Filipino can read. It is up to us, as a nation, to unite with purpose and urgency, in every classroom and community, to ensure this potential becomes a reality and that every Filipino can truly read their world. – Rappler.com

Karol Mark Yee is the executive director of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2).

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