The Department of Education (DepEd) emphasized the importance of building learners' literacy skills as early as kindergarten in an effort to stem the alarming rate of functional illiteracy among Filipino children.
DepEd Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Teaching Jerome Buenviaje expressed this in reaction to the findings of the 2024 functional literacy, education and mass media survey (FLEMMS) that more than 18 million junior high school graduates are 'functionally illiterate'.
"It's critical that when we talk about instruction, we must begin in the initial stages Kindergarten up to Grade 3. Because there are studies indicating that if we don't emphasize that initial key stage, the students will struggle to catch up when they get to Grade 4 and beyond.", Buenviaje added.
To remember, DepEd in 2023 introduced the updated K-10 curriculum of the K-12 program. With the recalibrated curriculum now in its phased implementation, the learning competencies were decreased by 70% from approximately 11,700 to 3,600. DepEd also reduced the number of subjects, with more focus placed on Kinder to Grade 3 learners' core skills like literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills.
Despite DepEd’s efforts, Buenviaje stressed that addressing functional illiteracy couldn’t be done by the agency alone, as this problem was also caused by other factors such as poor nutrition. “We think that literacy and nutrition can't be divided. That's why the DepEd is doing a good job. We provide access to early childhood nutrition and a solid literacy program in K to 3”, he added. After the release of the 2024 FLEMMS result, Education Secretary Sonny Angara reiterates the DepEd's dedication to making every learner in the country functionally literate.
"Not we will not allow any learner to fall behind reading and comprehension. The recent outcome of FLEMMS results for functional literacy reminds us what we've known all along literacy should be at the center of our education reforms", Angara stated. "Guaranteeing every Filipino learner to be functionally literate is a promise that we owe to our people", he further added.
Foundational learning
In addition, Senator Loren Legarda, commissioner of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), called for prompt focus on fortifying learners' basic competencies, in view of the FLEMMS data. "This is a painful indictment of our education system", Legarda says.
It unveils a system failure that informs us school enrollment and graduation no longer translate into real learning. When millions of students finish their primary education unable to read what they're reading, they are being prepared for the world armed with nothing but a piece of paper with no real credibility," she further said.
Senate committee on basic education chair Sherwin Gatchalian previously revealed the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) figures that indicated 79 million constituents were deemed functional literates based on the 2019 criteria of the study.
But with the PSA adjusting the new criteria to count a person as a functional literate under the 2024 FLEMMS, more graduates of the junior high school are now identified to be unable to read.
In the FLEMMS conducted up to 2019, an individual is functional literate if he can read, write, compute, and understand, or at least high school graduate under the old curriculum or at least junior high school completer under the K to 12 curriculum. But for the 2024 FLEMMS, the PSA changed the definition of functional literate as an individual who can read, write, compute, and understand.
Legarda cautioned that prevalent functional illiteracy could destabilize inclusive growth, reduce labor force competitiveness in a fast-changing job market, and increase social disparity. "If the education system fails to deliver graduates with skills in comprehension, one cannot possibly expect the graduates to become an industry-competitive, innovative workforce that can effectively participate in democratic processes", Legarda stated. This failure not only steals opportunities away from the citizenry but also lowers the economic potential, and undermines the foundation of participatory governance.
