Literacy in the Philippines
Open-knowledge reference entry
Literacy in the Philippines or Basic Literacy refers as the ability of a person to read, write and compute and Functional Literacy refers to the ability of a person to read write, compute, and comprehend, based on PSA Board Resolution No. 13 Series of 2024.
In the Philippines, the literacy rate is determined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) through the Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS).
The result of the FLEMMS in 2024 shows that the Basic Literacy Rate for 5 Years Old and Over is 90% while the Functional Literacy Rate of those 10 to 64 Years Old is 70.8% The 2024 FLEMMS is the seventh (7th) PSA Survey.
The Philippine Government lead agency for literacy is the Department of Education (DepEd). The Literacy Coordinating Council (LCC) is an inter-agency body that is administratively attached to DepEd.
The Commission on Higher Education, through the issuance of memorandum, supports higher education institutions to include literacy programs in extension services.
History
Pre-colonial period (900 AD to 1565)
In pre-colonial Philippines, the communities pass their stories, songs, poetry, dances, medicinal practices and advice regarding all sorts of community life issues passed from generation to generation, primarily through oral tradition. However, communities already developed writing systems and used Philippine scripts such as baybayin and other syllabaries. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is the earliest-known, extant, calendar-dated document found within the Philippines
Early chroniclers, who came during the first Spanish expeditions to the islands noted the proficiency of some of the natives, especially the chieftain and local kings, in Sanskrit, Old Javanese, Old Malay, and several other languages.
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This entry incorporates text from “Literacy in the Philippines” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.