The fear of our education

By Andrew M. Talidong
You saw the grim headlines detailing the devastating situation of our education. In recent headlines in the early May 2025, it is stated that 19 million Filipino senior high school graduates are functionally-illiterate. For instance the Philippine Daily Inquirer posted the headline, “PSA study: 19M senior high school grads ‘functional illiterate’”. Lawmakers were at a panic with this “reality”. Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian stated that this particular study should “jolt policymakers into working together to come up with a national strategy to address ‘the gravity of our situation now.'” The senator also cites another study which states that:

“…about 24.82 million Filipinos age 10 to 64 were considered functionally illiterate, or individuals who could read, write, and compute but could not understand what they read…”

ANC 24/7 on YouTube detailing that over 18 million high school students are functionally illiterate, citing a PSA study

I am particularly curious regarding with the methodology made by these studies, whether there is some “overexaggeration” at play here or “some mistake” in how these researchers interpret the raw data. According to a news piece published by GMA News Online, the Department of Education made it clear that the “19 million” number in the PSA study weren’t just referring to the number of senior high school grads but to a broader age group from 10 to 64. To make it succinctly clear, here is an excerpt from the GMA article:

“In a position paper, DepEd Undersecretary Ronald Mendoza said the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) data which was presented by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in a Senate basic education committee last week, actually indicated that 18.9 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64 were classified as functionally illiterate.“

DepEd Undersecretary Ronald Mendoza further elaborate that junior high schoolers and senior high schoolers for School Year 2024-2025 was only about 11.6 million. Mendoza highlighted that attributing it to “the full 18.9 million figure solely to high school graduates” would be highly incorrect.

With the exposure of the overexaggerated interpretation made by the Philippine media, it is clear that the staff of these news agencies do not put their due diligence in analyzing whether the statement “19 million senior high school students” as “functionally illiterate” holds true. Traditional media boasts themselves as the beacon of “truth” against misinformation. They portrayed misinformation as this boogeyman to preserve a loyal “fanbase”, making a bad name for bloggers and vloggers alike, when they themselves do not fact-check what they are reporting. As of May 17, 2025, ABS-CBN News is still pushing that "over 18 million high school students" are still "functionally illiterate" even after DepEd's clarification.

Not only the traditional media but also the senate committee responsible for this misinterpretation. I expect they have a team of experts in analyzing statistical data to get the accurate message from the 2024 PSA study. I guess political biases gained victory at the end of the day.

Maybe this is an isolated case? or maybe not? The matter of the fact is, the headline had a long-lasting impact not just on public policy but also on the lives on those poor senior high schoolers. Many comments especially on YouTube made advocacies on stricter discipline in school administration. Some boasts that they are honor students and smarter than every single Filipinos out there. In internet forums like Reddit, many were not surprised and would get political about it stating that “DDS fanboys” would get the upper hand in elections.

As expected from the Filipino public, they get easily swayed by negative headlines and would conclude to outrageous suggestions for policymakers masquerading as the “ultimate solution”. As for policymakers themselves, they got a reason to do “charity” work for those Pinoys to win elections.

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