The Philippines is undergoing an education crisis as it struggles to prepare its students for a rapidly changing world. This shortfall in education is not only stalling personal growth but also fueling poverty and inequality, compounding the country’s social and economic challenges. As the nation strives for development, addressing the systemic issues that are plaguing its education sector is vital to unlock the potential of its people and foster sustainable development.
Staggering statistics
The scale of the crisis is staggering. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), 24 million Filipinos aged 10-64 are functionally illiterate, with 5.8 million being basically illiterate. Even more alarming, one in five high school graduates in 2024 were functionally illiterate, with over 18.9 million struggling with basic skills such as reading, writing, arithmetic, and comprehension. The World Bank reports that 91% of Filipino children aged 10 struggle to read simple text, a rate that has been worsened by the pandemic.
The quality of Philippine education had been declining even before the pandemic. In the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 15-year-old Filipinos scored an average of 14 points in creative thinking, ranking the Philippines among the bottom four out of 64 countries. The test evaluated students’ ability to generate and improve ideas using imagination and creativity.
Poverty and child labor are significant contributors to illiteracy with 678,000 (62%) of 1.1 million working children in 2023 being engaged in hazardous work. Early pregnancies also disrupt education with a 35% surge in live births among girls under 15. With 10.5 million children living in poverty as of 2021, these challenges perpetuate a cycle that hinders educational attainment and exacerbates illiteracy.
Illiteracy has a significant impact on the country’s economy and social welfare. It costs the Philippines an estimated US$4.72 billion annually, resulting in lost earnings, limited employability, and reduced business productivity. The country’s economic future is in jeopardy if its workforce remains unprepared.
Underfunding, under-qualification, under-development
The education sector is underfunded, with the country spending only 3.6% of its GDP on it, below the UNESCO-recommended 4-6%.
Infrastructure is a persistent issue with many schools lacking basic resources such as books and personnel. Around 5,000 schools in the Philippines are without electricity, and 10,000 are without clean water. This deprives students and teachers of basic necessities which impacts upon the quality of education.
Another major contributor to the education crisis is teachers’ lack of subject mastery, weak training programs, and absenteeism. Classroom observations reveal that 66% of teachers had low to medium-low use of effective teaching practices, with none displaying high use of effective pedagogy. As many as 62% of high school teachers teach subjects they did not major in. According to a World Bank study, a high school math teacher was able to answer only 31% of questions completely correctly.
The morale of teachers is also of concern. Low salaries, poor working conditions, and limited career advancement possibilities diminish motivation and performance. Moreover, there is a serious leadership shortage with 55% of public schools lacking principals, representing a lack of 24,916 head teachers.
Government under fire
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, Chair of the Senate Basic Education Committee, warns that high illiteracy rates hinder economic growth, worsen inequality, and make it difficult to fight poverty and unemployment.
“Fighting poverty is challenging when people lack basic skills like reading, writing, and math, which are essential for better job opportunities,” he explained.
The Department of Education has come under fire for its failure to improve education outcomes with experts urging the government to prioritize improving education quality to address the country’s long-standing issues rather than focusing on PISA results.
Since 1946, when Philippines declared its independence, the government has implemented several reforms in an effort to make education accessible to all, and the 1987 Constitution enshrined the right to quality education. Yet despite these efforts, the system still faces substantial challenges that hinder many Filipinos from accessing education. Without bold and sustained efforts, Philippine’s ambition to become an upper-middle-income country is likely to remain out of reach. Economic growth relies on a skilled, literate population and closing the education gap is key to achieving this.
