PSA: 5.58M junior high school graduates lack comprehension skills

There are 5.58 million high school graduates considered “functionally illiterate" or having problems in comprehension and understanding, the Philippine Statistics Authority has clarified.

PSA assistant national statistician Adrian Cerezo made the clarification in a House committee briefing in the wake of reports that the number of junior high school graduates tagged as “functional illiterate” or those who have problems in comprehension and understanding, stood at 18.9 million. 

“We’d like to point out that the difference of 18.965 million between the old and new definition…does not represent only those who graduated from senior high and high school graduates in the old curriculum," PSA assistant national statistician Adrian Cerezo said.

"[It] stands for all 10 to 64 years old who have functional literacy deficiencies regardless of educational attainment,” he added. 

“The estimated number of high school graduates, including junior high completers 10 to 64 years old, who are basic literate but are not functionally literate because of lack of comprehension skills stands at 5.58 million in 2024,” Cerezo said. 

House Committee on Basic Education and Culture chairman Roman Romulo said that the 5.58 million individuals who still couldn’t understand what they read, even with a high school diploma, should be a cause of concern. 

The Department of Education (DepEd) has pointed out that the 18.9 million Filipinos considered as “functionally illiterate” based on the results of the 2024 functional literacy, education, and mass media survey (FLEMMS) came from a much broader age group, and were not only high school graduates.

These people who are functionally illiterate can read, write, and compute, but struggle with comprehension, regardless of their educational attainment.

Cerezo said that of the 18.9 million, over 13 million people were not able to finish junior or senior high school at the very least. 

“It doesn’t make the picture any better because ibig sabihin, ‘yung 13 million tinatanggal niyo lang, gusto niyo lang sabihin na hindi kasi nag-graduate ng high school ‘yan—pero pwedeng dumaan hanggang Grade 9, Grade 8… So, it’s not reflective of a quality education being given by DepEd,” Romulo said.

(It doesn't make the picture any better because that means that with the 13 million you are removing, you just want to say that they weren’t able to graduate from high school—but it’s possible that they were able to reach Grade 9, Grade 8... So, it's not reflective of a quality education being given by DepEd.) 

“Again, 5.5 million pa rin ang nakapagtapos ng senior high school or high school na hindi maka-comprehend ng binabasa…5.5 million pa rin ‘yun, malaki pa rin. Gusto niyo lang sabihin sa’min na ‘yung 13 million, hindi kasi nakapag-tapos pero pwedeng nag-aral ‘yun,” he continued. 

(Again, there are still 5.5 million who graduated from senior high school or high school who can't understand what they read...that's still 5.5 million, it's still a lot. You just want to tell us that the 13 million were removed because they didn't graduate, but they could have still gone to school.) –NB, GMA Integrated News