DepEd urged to provide alternative learning for comprehension

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to provide alternative learning to students with poor comprehension skills following a Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) survey which found close to 19 million “functionally illiterate” graduates in 2024.

In a dwIZ interview yesterday, Gatchalian reiterated his call for the DepEd to address the issue of “functional illiteracy” or the inability to comprehend despite knowing how to read and write as the PSA defines it.

He said the DepEd should look for these students at schools and place them in the alternative learning system.

They can also be provided with tutors so that they could be assisted in their learning and not graduate with poor comprehension skills, Gatchalian said.

The senator also noticed that the provinces with the greatest number of illiterate children are those with a high incidence of poverty and child malnourishment.

“An underweight and stunted child who is hungry cannot learn properly. Proper nutrition helps in their learning,” Gatchalian said.

Poverty and illiteracy are also linked, Gatchalian said, adding that education remains a key step to getting out of poverty.

Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said the national government can address the problem of functional illiteracy by funding the personnel, infrastructure and equipment requirements of the primary and secondary education sector.

“There is need for more classrooms, more teacher positions, additional training for teachers, more books, more school equipment and provision of more computers and tablets to public elementary learners and high school students, especially in Mindanao where the PSA has reported high functional illiteracy rates,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

“This means that we have to increase the budget of the DepEd every year, instead of reducing it,” he added.

He decried the decision of Congress to reduce DepEd’s computerization fund this year by at least P10 billion.

He urged President Marcos to augment the fund from government savings and appropriations in the national budget that he is authorized to realign.

Rodriguez proposed that starting with the 2026 annual budget, the President and Congress should increase the DepEd outlay every year.

Rodriguez pointed out that there should also be a parallel effort in the private sector to tackle the problem. — Jose Rodel Clapano