PSA: Higher basic, functional literacy seen on Filipinos who finished HS
Philippine Statistics Authority. INQUIRER FILE / STOCK IMAGE
MANILA, Philippines — A higher basic and functional literacy rate was recorded among individuals who reached at least a high school level of education, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
This is based on the PSA’s third report on the results of the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) released on Tuesday.
The FLEMMS showed that the basic literacy rate has increased after “individuals aged 5 years and over who are at least high school level exhibited basic literacy rates higher than 90 percent.”
Basic literacy, as defined by PSA, refers to the ability of a person to read and write a simple message in any language or dialect with understanding, as well as the ability to compute or perform basic mathematical operations.
READ: Highest illiteracy rates mostly in southern PH
With this, PSA added that individuals who had reached or completed post baccalaureate recorded the highest basic literacy rate at 98 percent.
Highest grade completed
Those with no grade completed, meanwhile, recorded the lowest basic literacy rate of 25.6 percent.
As for the functional literacy rate, PSA underscored that it has also increased as the highest grade completed becomes higher among those aged 10 to 64 years.
“Among these, those who have reached or completed at least a high school level of education showed a higher functional literacy rate than the national rate of 70.8 percent,” the PSA noted.
It added that individuals who had reached or completed post baccalaureate recorded the highest functional literacy rate at 93.2 percent, while those with no grade completed recorded the lowest functional literacy rate at 10.8 percent.
Functional literacy refers to “the ability of a person to read, write, compute, and comprehend. In addition to the basic literacy skills, functional literacy includes a higher level of comprehension skills, such as integrating two or more pieces of information and making inferences based on the given information.”
Basic literacy rate is computed for individuals aged 5 and above, while functional literacy rate is for individuals aged 10 to 64./mr
