Government urged to strengthen students' foundational learning

Senator Loren Legarda has urged the government to prioritize strengthening students' foundational learning to address the alarming number of graduates classified as “functionally illiterate.”

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Speaking in her capacity as a commissioner of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II), Legarda raised concern over findings from the Philippine Statistics Authority's (PSA) 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS). The report revealed that 18.9 million Filipinos who completed basic education in 2024 lacked functional literacy—a key topic in a recent Senate hearing on basic education.

"This is a painful indictment of our education system. It reveals a systemic failure that tells us school attendance and graduation no longer guarantee genuine learning," Legarda said.

"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.