Government neglecting 11 million adult illiterates - ACT

MANILA, Philippines – The government is neglecting 11 million Filipinos who do not know how to read and write, according to a group of teachers.

Antonio Tinio, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) national chairman, said the Department of Education (DepEd) has allotted an inadequate portion of its yearly budget for non-formal education programs for illiterate adults nationwide.

“If (the government) will continue to neglect this segment of the population that needs education, the Philippines will surely fail to meet the 2015 deadline (of the United Nations Education for All program),” he said.

Tinio said the 2003 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) had found that 11 million Filipinos between the ages of 10 and 64 cannot read, write, and compute.

“Clearly, the Arroyo government’s efforts to address illiteracy, particularly among adults, have fallen far short of the challenge,” he said.

“The 2008 budget for Alternative Learning Systems stood at P310.68 million, a mere 0.002 percent of the total Department of Education budget of P147 billion.”

Of the estimated 57.6 million Filipinos 10 to 64 years old, about 48.4 million or 84 percent are functionally literate, according to FLEMMS.

Tinio said the Education For All commitments by the Philippine government at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000 includes the attainment of a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for adults.

“An increase of more than tenfold is needed if it is to fulfill its commitment to reduce the number of functionally illiterate individuals by 50 percent in the next six years,” he said.

In terms of budget, this commitment entails allocating at least 3 percent of the education budget to adult literacy, he added.

ACT and other teachers’ groups organized a forum on the right to literacy as part of a global campaign for education rights.

Throughout the world, educators and education advocates have been holding numerous activities from April 20 to 26, designated as Global Action Week for Education For All. – Rainier Allan Ronda