EDUCATION Secretary Sonny Angara vowed to strengthen interventions among students after a survey found that 18 million Filipino graduates were "functionally illiterate."

Based on the Philippine Statistics Authority's Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (Flemms), only 70.8 percent of Filipinos, or around 60.17 million, are "functionally literate" or those who have higher-level comprehension skills, going beyond basic reading, writing, and numeracy.

The PSA redefined "functional literacy" in 2024 from its 2019 definition that automatically categorizes high school graduates or junior high school completers as functionally literate.

If the 2019 definition of functional literacy was used, the literacy rate in the country is at 93.1 percent, equivalent to around 79.135 million Filipinos.

"There are approximately 5.8 million people who are not basically literate ... If you look at functionally illiterate, there are 24.8 million who have problems comprehending ... This is the gravity of our situation right now, and I support the new definition [of literacy] because now we have a good picture of where we are," Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Basic Education Committee and a co-chairman of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2), said during the hearing on Wednesday.

"There are high school and junior high school graduates who ... did not pass the new definition of functional literacy ... In other words, 18 million graduates from the system are not functionally literate," Gatchalian added.

He noted that the 18 million who graduated from junior and senior high school, but are not functionally literate, is a "problem" for basic education.

In a statement, Angara said that they will never allow any child to be left behind in reading and comprehension, noting that the recent Flemms results on functional literacy "highlight what we have long recognized — literacy must be at the heart of our education reforms."

Among the measures the department is implementing, Angara said, are strengthened interventions such as remedial and literacy programs, effective use of data in every school, and further deepening teaching and assessment methods to allow students to be more critical thinkers and use 21st century skills.

"DepEd is working to correct the mistakes of the past and prepare each kid to a strong future. Ensuring that every Filipino learner is functionally literate is a commitment we owe to our constituents," Angara said.

The Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) urged candidates to place education at the center of their policy agenda amid the findings of the PSA.

"It is time to rise above politics and champion education. We urge the candidates to present concrete plans and real solutions that tackle the learning crisis, workforce readiness, and systemic reforms," PBEd executive director Hanibal Camua said.