Jamayka Rhose Pascual & Adi Joaquim Tolentino

More than 18 million Filipinos who have finished high school are considered functionally illiterate, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).


This figure was based on the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) and was revealed during a Senate Committee on Basic Education hearing held on April 30, 2025.

Unlike before, functional literacy now goes beyond basic reading, writing, and numeracy, as it includes understanding what one reads and applying that knowledge in daily life.

According to this data, functionally literate Filipinos dropped from 79 million in 2019 to just 60 million in 2024.

This means that nearly one in four Filipinos aged 10 to 64 lacks the ability to understand and use written information effectively, even after completing basic education.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the education committee, described the findings as “grave,” emphasizing that no student should graduate from the basic education system without functional literacy.

“That’s a problem of basic education—because paano sila nag-graduate nang hindi sila functionally literate?… This is where basic education comes in, that 18 million should not happen. No one should graduate in our basic education system [who] will not be functional literate,” he said.

He cited data showing that around 21% of senior high school graduates, roughly 18.9 million people lack essential literacy skills.

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

The PSA attributed the decline to weak reading comprehension and limited ability to apply what is learned in school to real-life situations.

These challenges are especially evident in regions like the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where illiteracy remains high.

Other provinces such as Tawi-tawi, Davao Occidental, and Northern Samar also recorded troubling literacy levels, often compounded by widespread poverty.

“This is a very important survey because now we can come up with intervention programs, especially when the budget season comes in, we can allocate budget to areas that need it the most in addressing illiteracy in their own localities,” Gatchalian emphasized.

In response, the Department of Education (DepEd) presented several programs aimed at strengthening foundational skills, including the revision of the K to 10 curriculum.

They also highlighted the Early Language, Literacy, and Numeracy program and the ARAL remediation initiative designed to support struggling students.

"DepEd should already be proactive in making sure that no one will graduate without being functionally literate...The very basic goal of basic education is that students become functionally literate,” Gatchalian affirmed.

Senate Committee on Basic Education Chairperson Senator Sherwin Gatchalian raised alarm over the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) results, which revealed that more than 18 million Filipino graduates lack functional literacy.

During a Senate hearing on April 30 on the country’s literacy crisis, he pointed out the implications of a stricter definition of functional literacy introduced by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

“This is a very important survey because now we can come up with intervention programs, especially when the budget season comes in. We can allocate budget to areas that need it the most,” Gatchalian said.

He explained that functional literacy now requires not just reading and writing but also comprehension and numeracy.

According to the PSA, the new benchmark caused a drop in the functionally literate population from 79.1 million under the 2019 standard to just 60.2 million in 2024.

“In the current definition, the number of functional literacy or literate went down to 60 million constituents,” Gatchalian said.

The senator warned that many junior high school and high school graduates were misclassified in the past due to lenient criteria.

“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,” he asked.

PSA Assistant National Statistician Adrian Cerezo confirmed the discrepancy as the 2024 FLEMMS covered 572,910 individuals across 177,656 households nationwide.

The Senate hearing also revealed that 21 percent of senior high school graduates cannot comprehend simple material.

“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,” Gatchalian said.

He emphasized that basic education must not allow any student to finish school without gaining functional literacy.

“No one should graduate from our education system without being functionally literate,” he said.

The senator cited additional figures: 5.8 million Filipinos cannot read, write, or compute, and 28.4 million struggle with comprehension, with BARMM having the highest basic illiteracy rate at 16 percent, or around 582,000 individuals wherein Tawi-Tawi, 67 percent of the population, or 218,000 individuals, are functionally illiterate, the highest in the country.

“In Tawi-Tawi, if you want to bring businesses there, have meaningful livelihood programs, it’s very difficult if people cannot even understand or comprehend a simple story,” Gatchalian said.

He said breaking the cycle of poverty is impossible without tackling literacy gaps first.

Cerezo said the data has been noted by Education Secretary Sonny Angara, particularly the figures from BARMM.

The Department of Education committed to action, beginning with assessments for learners using the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (PHIL-IRI) in the next school year.

“We will be conducting beginning of school year assessment for PHIL-IRI which will guide us as to who are these learners who needs intervention,” said DepEd chief education program specialist Rosalina Villaneza.

She added that DepEd would train dedicated reading teachers for every secondary school to address student comprehension problems.

Angara, for his part, reaffirmed DepEd’s efforts to improve foundational education.

“These figures affirm our ongoing efforts to strengthen foundational education while also highlighting areas where we can further enhance our learners’ skills,” he said.

He noted that while basic literacy remains high at 93.1 percent, functional literacy must catch up through curriculum improvement and targeted teaching.

“We are continuously innovating our approaches to ensure that literacy education remains dynamic, engaging, and accessible to all,” Angara said.

Senator Gatchalian urged local government units to take responsibility by using the regional data provided in the FLEMMS.

“We cannot just meet here in the room. We have to cascade this all the way to the provinces. Now that data is available per province, it’s important that we flag the local government units (LGUs) in that area to address illiteracy in their locality either by using their own resources or allocating national resources so that it can be augmented,” he added.

He stressed the urgency of intervention and concluded with a warning that poverty would persist as long as there were Filipinos who could not read, write, or compute.