DepEd: 11.6M Filipinos ‘illiterate’, almost half of them children

MANILA, Philippines - Around 11.6 million Filipinos have never attended school and thus considered illiterates, according to the Department of Education. Education Secretary Jesli Lapus on Tuesday said reaching these “unschooled Filipinos" is among the critical issues and challenges currently confronting the agency. “We need to reckon with the 11.6 million Filipinos who have never attended schools, and are, therefore, illiterates," Lapus said. Records from DepEd show that of the 11.6 million, around 2.2 million are six to 11 years old and 3.4 million are 12 to15 years of age. “These unschooled children are in the streets or are in high-risk but low-paying jobs," Lapus said. Lapus stressed that there is a need to “muster all support" to get this group to seek basic education, whether formal, informal, or non-formal. Lapus also bared that first grade elementary readiness rate in the country is only at 35% despite the fact that most of five-year old children had undergone preschools through the Department of Social Welfare and Development and other programs by the local government units. Lapus also tackled the unabated opening of private preschools “whose programs are of doubtful quality yet they charge high tuition fees" has aggravated the problem on the preschool sector. Lapus said that they will require 65 percent of the children to undergo an eight-week course on preschool education through the Grade I Readiness Assessment Tool evaluation as they enter Grade I to determine the child’s readiness for formal school curriculum of Grade I. - GMANews.TV