PSA has an obligation to clarify its literacy data

YELLOW PAD

- NEPOMUCENO A. MALALUAN

On May 1, a holiday, I noticed that the Department of Education (DepEd) was trending on X (formerly Twitter).

I clicked to see what had sparked the discussion. One widely shared post featured an image of a striking news headline: “Almost 19 million junior, senior high graduates in 2024 can’t read — PSA.”

As someone formerly connected with DepEd, I was immediately puzzled. The numbers didn’t add up. The first batch of Senior High School (SHS) students under the K to 12 curriculum entered in 2016, and the total number of graduates in a given year is nowhere near 19 million. I looked up the article, and what I found was not just inaccurate reporting but a textbook case of statistical miscommunication.

Here’s what I surmise happened:

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released results on literacy from its 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) on April 4. The survey, conducted every five years, measures the basic and functional literacy levels of Filipinos across a broad age range, not a specific graduating class.

According to the PSA, 70.8% of Filipinos aged 10 to 64 years old were functionally literate in 2024. Functional literacy here means the ability to read, write, compute, and comprehend. The remaining 29.2%, or approximately 24.8 million individuals, lacked one or more of these abilities.

On April 30, the Senate Committee on Basic Education held a hearing to examine the results. Committee chair Senator Sherwin Gatchalian underscored the alarming implication that many Filipinos pass through the basic education system without acquiring sufficient comprehension skills. His concerns were valid and framed within the urgent need for education reform.