DepEd emphasizes need to focus on literacy for K-3

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Sunday underscored the need to develop learners’ literacy skills as early as kindergarten in a bid to address the alarming state of functional illiteracy among Filipino children.

DepEd Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Teaching Jerome Buenviaje said this in response to the results of the 2024 functional literacy, education and mass media survey (FLEMMS) which revealed that over 18 million junior high school graduates are considered “functionally illiterate.”

“Importante, ‘yung sa pagtuturo…simulan siya sa early stages. ‘Yung kindergarten hanggang Grade 3. Kasi may mga pag-aaral na kung hindi ito mabibigyang tuon doon sa unang key stage natin, mahihirapan na siya na mag-catch up pagdating ng Grade 4 pataas,” Buenviaje said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview. 

(It's important that when it comes to teaching, we should start in the early stages—Kindergarten to Grade 3. Because there are studies that say that if we don't focus on that first key stage, the learners will have a hard time catching up when they reach Grade 4 and above.) 

To recall, DepEd in 2023 launched the revised K-10 curriculum of the K-12 program. Under the recalibrated curriculum, which is now in its phased implementation, the number of learning competencies was reduced by 70% from around 11,700 to 3,600. 

DepEd also cut down the number of subjects, with greater emphasis given on the development of Kinder to Grade 3 learners' foundational skills such as 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.

“Naniniwala tayo na ang nutrisyon at literisiya ay hindi pwedeng paghiwalayin. Kaya nga ang ginagawa ng DepEd ay paglalagay ng maayos na batayang pundasyon. Meron tayong access to early childhood nutrition at strong literacy program sa K to 3,” he added.

(We believe that nutrition and literacy cannot be separated. That's why the DepEd is laying a good foundation. We give access to early childhood nutrition and a strong literacy program in K to 3.) 

Following the release of the 2024 FLEMMS result, Education Secretary Sonny Angara reaffirmed the DepEd’s commitment to ensuring that every learner in the country is functionally literate.

“Hindi namin hahayaang may batang nahuhuli sa pagbasa at pag-unawa [we will not let any learner fall behind in reading and comprehension]. The recent FLEMMS results on functional literacy highlight what we have long recognized—literacy must be at the heart of our education reforms,” Angara said in a statement.

“Ensuring that every Filipino learner is functionally literate is a commitment we owe to our constituents,” he added.

Foundational learning

Furthermore, Senator Loren Legarda, commissioner of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), urged immediate attention to strengthening learners’ foundational competencies, in light of the FLEMMS data. 

“This is a painful indictment of our education system,” Legarda said.

“It reveals a systemic failure that tells us school attendance and graduation no longer guarantee genuine learning. When millions of learners complete their basic education without the ability to comprehend what they read, they are being sent into the world unprepared with nothing but a diploma that bears no real weight,” she added.

Senate basic education committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian earlier disclosed the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data which showed that 79 million constituents were considered functional literate under the 2019 parameters of the study.

But with the PSA revising the new parameters to consider an individual as a functional literate under the 2024 FLEMMS, more junior high school graduates are now detected to be unable to comprehend.

In the FLEMMS that was conducted until 2019, a person is considered functional literate if he can read, write, compute, and comprehend, or at least high school graduate in the old curriculum or at least junior high school completer in the K to 12 curriculum.

But for the 2024 FLEMMS, the PSA has revised the definition of functional literate as someone who can read, write, compute, and comprehend.

Legarda warned that widespread functional illiteracy may undermine inclusive growth, weaken workforce competitiveness in a rapidly evolving labor market, and deepen social inequality. 

“An education system that produces graduates without comprehension skills cannot be expected to produce a workforce capable of competing, innovating, or engaging meaningfully in democratic life,” she said. 

“This failure not only robs individuals of opportunities but also dampens economic potential and erodes the foundations of participatory governance.” — BM, GMA Integrated News