The Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) used a new, stricter definition of what it means to be functionally literate.

Unlike previous years, simply finishing high school does not mean a person is considered functionally literate.

Based on this updated standard, only around 60 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64 were classified as functionally literate.

This is a sharp drop from the earlier estimate of over 79 million under the old system.

The change means that about 18.9 million high school graduates are now seen as lacking the skills needed to understand written information and solve basic problems.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who leads the Senate committee on education, said the new findings show the depth of the problem.

“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,” he was quoted by Vietnam News as saying.

Senator Loren Legarda also expressed concern, calling the results a wake-up call for education reform.

According to her, the findings highlight a gap between school attendance and actual learning, stressing the need to focus on building stronger basic skills in schools.

The Department of Education has since promised to improve its efforts to raise literacy levels across the country.