THE Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) has released its top 10 findings for 2025, highlighting widespread functional illiteracy affecting 24 million Filipinos and the continued exclusion of millions of children with disabilities from basic services.
Ranking first among the findings was the release of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey on April 30, 2025. The survey showed that more than 24 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64 are functionally illiterate, while 5.8 million are basically illiterate.
The commission’s second key finding, based on an Edcom 2 and ID insight policy brief titled “Accelerating Support for Learners with Disabilities” released on Nov. 21, 2025, highlighted major gaps in inclusive education. While the Inclusive Education Act aligns with international best practices, local resource and capacity constraints continue to hamper its effective implementation.
These findings are corroborated by an earlier study done by the World Bank (WB). An article by the economist Tadios Sokomondo Denya said that our country is facing an education crisis as it struggles to prepare its students for a world that’s swiftly changing.
“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.”
The WB reports that 91 percent of Filipino children 10 years old and above struggle to read simple text, a rate that has been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic. The report corroborates the findings of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Earlier in this space, we lamented the results of the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), where 15-year-old Filipinos only scored an average of 14 points in creative thinking. This put our country among the bottom four out of 64 countries. The test evaluated students’ ability to generate and improve ideas using imagination and creativity. Our students also received dismal scores in mathematics, science and reading comprehension in English.
Poverty and child labor contribute to illiteracy, with 678,000 (62 percent) of 1.1 million working children in 2023 working. Early pregnancies also disrupt education with a 35 percent 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 education and worsens illiteracy.
Illiteracy has a significant impact on our economy and social welfare. The cost is a staggering $4.72 billion annually, resulting in lost earnings, limited employability, and reduced business productivity. Our economic future is bleak if our workforce remains unprepared.
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 the teachers’ lack of subject mastery, weak training programs, and absenteeism. Around 66 percent of teachers had low to medium-low use of effective teaching practices, with none displaying high use of effective pedagogy. As many as 62 percent of high school teachers teach subjects that they did not major in. According to a World Bank study, a high school math teacher was able to answer only 31 percent of questions completely correctly.
Moreover, the morale of teachers is a major concern. Low salaries, poor working conditions, and limited career advancement possibilities weaken motivation and performance. There is also a serious leadership shortage, with 55 percent of public schools lacking principals, representing a lack of 24,916 head teachers. Education Secretary Sonny Angara has pushed for the salary increase and the hiring of principals.
Without bold and sustained efforts, our 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.
Moreover, data showed that only 391,089 learners with disabilities were enrolled in public schools, representing just 8 percent of the estimated 5.1 million children with disabilities nationwide. Edcom 2 said that the third major headache of DepEd is the finding that only 43 percent of malnourished children aged 2 to 4 are covered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s supplementary feeding program.
The DepEd will receive P1 trillion from the national budget in 2026. We hope this can make a dent in the massive challenges faced by our education department.
