The functional literacy rate of the Philippines has improved in 2019 with around 91.6 percent of Filipinos aged 10 to 64 years-old capable of reading, writing, and using math in their common life activities.
The 2019 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the figure is equivalent “to around 73.0 million out of 79.7 million in the same age group who are considered literate on a functional level.”
The PSA said the 2019 data for the same age group are higher than the record in 2013. Functional literacy is higher in 2019 among females at 92.9 percent than in males at 90.2 percent. In 2013, the proportion of functionally literate female was recorded at 92.0 percent and male at 88.7 percent.
The National Capital Region (NCR) registered the highest percentage for functional literacy rate at 96.5 percent while the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has the lowest at 71.6 percent.
“Among age groups, 20 to 24-year-old (96.0%) Filipinos had the highest functional literacy rate in 2019, while those aged 60 to 64 years old (84.8%) had the lowest,” according to the results.
“Filipinos who are at least junior high school completers in the K-12 curriculum or equivalently high school graduates in the old curriculum were reported to have very high functional literacy rates (100.0%),” it added. – PTV News
