MANILA, Philippines — Approximately 18 million Filipinos who have graduated from the country’s basic education system are still considered functionally illiterate, according to Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) data presented during a senate inquiry. 

The survey reveals that many Filipinos who have completed basic education lack the necessary comprehension skills to be deemed functionally literate under updated standards.

“There are approximately 5.8 million people who are not basically literate… If you look at functionally illiterate, there are 24.8 million who have problems comprehending… This is the gravity of our situation right now, and I support the new definition [of literacy] because now we have a good picture of where we are,” Gatchalian said during the hearing Wednesday.

One of the key revelations of the 2024 FLEMMS is the PSA’s revised definition of “functional literacy,” which now includes higher-level comprehension skills—beyond basic reading, writing, and numeracy. 

It said that under the previous definition, high school graduates or junior high school completers were automatically classified as functionally literate. However, the new definition does not extend this automatic categorization, revealing that many graduates fall short of the standard.

“There are high school and junior high school graduates who… did not pass the new definition of functional literacy… In other words, 18 million graduates from the system are not functionally literate,” Gatchalian said.

According to PSA data, when using the old definition, 79 million Filipinos were considered functionally literate in 2024. However, with the introduction of the new, stricter criteria, the number drops significantly to just 60 million.

“And 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 that is functionally literate,” PSA’s Adrian Cerezo said.

Gatchalian echoed these concerns, highlighting the gap in the system that allows students to graduate without essential functional literacy. 

“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. That’s not the case now. In our EDCOM rounds, we have detected kids as old as 15 years old who cannot read a simple story. We have seen that on the ground. And I’m sure most of you teachers, principals, have also seen this on the ground,” Gatchalian said.

The Department of Education (DepEd) responded by presenting its initiatives aimed at addressing these critical gaps in literacy. These include the implementation of the revised K to 10 curriculum, strengthening the Early Language, Literacy, and Numeracy (ELLNA) Program, as well as introducing learning loss remediation strategies and gender-responsive interventions. Additionally, DepEd outlined its efforts through the ARAL Program, which received its implementing rules in December 2024.