Don’t waste the outrage

In our land of 112.7 million people (officially, as of last July), 24.8 million are functionally illiterate as of 2024, while nearly six million are saddled with basic illiteracy or are “no read, no write.”

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

Between 2023 and 2024, experts estimated that 2.6 million Filipino children under five years old — from 23.6 to 24 percent of the total — suffered from physical and mental stunting due to chronic malnutrition, repeated infections and economic difficulties.

In the latest survey on self-rated poverty conducted by Social Weather Stations, 50 percent considered themselves poor.

We're still waiting for the results of the third time that Filipino 15-year-olds participated in the Program for International Student Assessment, administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But we can guess that there will be little improvement from the outcomes of the first two times that the country participated in the PISA.

At least the outcome can’t be any worse. We can’t sink lower since both times, our students had already hit rock bottom in terms of mathematics and science competencies as well as reading comprehension.

Poor comprehension of lessons imparted in schools is the new element in the government's official redefinition of functional illiteracy.

Basic illiteracy is the complete inability to read, write and compute. According to official data, there were 5.8 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64 classified as basic illiterates as of 2024.