PSA: Nearly 19 million junior, senior high graduates can't read
Almost 19 million Filipino students who completed junior and senior high school last year cannot read and comprehend a simple story, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
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| Photo generated using Microsoft Copilot |
Learning crisis deepens
This was revealed during a Senate hearing on Wednesday, where Senator Sherwin Gatchalian expressed his concern about the education situation in the Philippines.
The lawmaker said the PSA determined that these graduates from 2019 were "not functionally literate."
Gatchalian stressed the gravity of the education crisis.
That's non-negotiable that a student who will graduate from our basic education system should be functionally literate—that's not the case now. That’s quite concerning — that means one 1 out of 5 of our graduates cannot comprehend a single story. That’s something that we need to address, he said.
According to government data, the following provinces have the highest number of illiterates:
- Tawi-Tawi (67 percent)
- Davao Occidental (53 percent)
- Zamboanga del Sur (49 percent)
- Northern Samar (48 percent)
- Basilan (48 percent)
- Sarangani (48 percent)
- Western Samar (46 percent)
- Agusan del Norte (44 percent)
- Sultan Kudarat (44 percent)
- Lanao del Norte (44 percent)
For years, several groups and experts have been urging the government to implement reforms in the education system amid a deepening crisis worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The global health emergency forced governments worldwide to embrace distance learning. In the Philippines, this shift coincided with strict lockdowns that further disrupted students' learning.
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