The Philippines' education crisis is worse than we imagined

Photo from Reuters

Column Name: The Unfiltered Truth

It is no news that the quality of public education here in the Philippines has seen a steady decline due to a myriad of reasons, with the most notable one being the poor implementation to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite this, a lot of people seem to be underestimating the fact that this isn’t just simply a ‘rough patch,’ but rather a ‘crisis’.

In a 2024 report by the Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) of Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), it has been revealed that 70.8 percent of Filipinos aged 10-64 show a functioning literacy rate, leaving 29.2 percent or roughly 24 million people, with poor reading comprehension and numerical skills, to function in daily life and participate on the society.

What’s more unsettling is that even among college graduates, only 68-75 percent, regardless of the age group have also displayed functional literacy, based on PSA’s data recomputation in 2019, in adaptation of the FLEMMS’ 2024 definition; Focusing more on a person’s ability to read, write, compute and comprehend and less emphasis on academic credentials such as diplomas and such.

Considering that the global literacy rate is estimated to be around 86 percent (in the same context of being able to utilize the aforementioned skills), this is lamentably substandard and incompetent. We are producing a lot of ill-educated members of our society, and this reflects on the worsening, educational crisis that we are experiencing.

It’s a bit ironic that going onto social media there seems to be an influx of honor students and dean’s listers flaunting their medals and such, but looking into these recent findings, there also seems to be a lot of people out there as well, who are having difficulties performing arithmetic calculations at the top of their head, and understanding the materials they are reading.

So I have a rhetorical question: Does that mean that these data collected were mostly inaccurate or the standards for what’s considered to be “academically-excellent” here in the Philippines have seen some decline?

That aside, I do believe that the Philippine government has been constantly undermining and neglecting many aspects of our country’s educational sector over the years, which have sensibly led to these subpar results.

A lot of teachers have been overworked and underpaid for the longest time. In a press release by Alliance of Concerned Teachers in the Philippines, citing IBON Foundation’s 2022 data, it has been found that 92 percent of public school teachers upholding Teacher I, II and III positions receive less than P33,000 a month, which is less than the recommended family living wage.

All the while some manage class sizes up to 50-65 students, which is above recommended of 35, with some experiencing shifts and overtime without additional compensation, there’s also the persisting shortages of classrooms, co-academic personnel (janitors, security guard, etc.), and unclean facilities such as comfort rooms and canteens nationwide, which also contribute to the quality of education given to learners nationwide.

And to put the cherry on top, the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) found just this year that four out of ten students do not complete their degrees due to opportunity costs, regardless of whether it is students from state university colleges or private institutions.

People may think: “Well, there are scholarship programs available out there.” While it helps, it isn’t the entire answer to everything; receiving it requires a lot of bureaucratic, processing time, especially to a third-world country such as ours, and there are also other expenses to be accounted for such as transportation fares, allowances, and project costs, among others.

Our national government provides so little for our educators and yet demands excessively from their constituents who seek quality and open education. For the longest time, it has been a fragmented exchange between the education sector and the faulted system, and it is important that these are addressed accordingly.

Before our country can go beyond its lousy state and prosper into actually producing globally-competitive students on a national average, reforms to cater the necessities of teachers, students and learning institutions need to be constantly refined and advocated, especially us, who are also still part of the academic sector.

Discrepancies on budgeting and planning need to be monitored. We must also support political figures at office who can thoroughly understand the education sector’s concerns.

Albeit little arguably, but together, we can produce change for the Filipino youth and learners especially to those in need and with big dreams, to pave a way for a better life and help our country achieve true, quality education.

Like the old adage of our national hero Jose Rizal, “the youth is the hope of our country,” we must ensure that we diligently do our part as Filipinos to provide them what not simply they just need, but also what they deserve from our country.

Publication Details

Note: This article is a part of the newsletter content, so there were no dedicated graphics produced.

(Komunikator, Volume 3, Issue 2) Page 5.

Published at Komunikator

Released in July 30, 2025

Written by Mark Romero

Original Article: Click Here