The country's education system shows tensions across multiple stages of learning, starting from childhood to college. Yet, it remains one of the least supported areas in public policy.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, 24 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64 are functionally illiterate. About 5.8 million people cannot read or write at a basic level. In 2024, one in five high school graduates will reach adulthood without basic reading, writing, arithmetic, and comprehension skills.
The World Bank found that 91% of 10-year-old Filipino children have difficulty reading simple text. The government attributes the worsening of the problem to the Corona virus epidemic.
Despite this, many parents still believe that children under 5 are “too young” for school. Long distances to child development centers limit access, while many families rely on relatives or older siblings to care for children as at least 40% of parents work away from home.
According to the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), teachers feel the weight of these early gaps once children reach Grade 3. Many students perform one to two grade levels below expectations.
Only 10% of the students who needed extra support attended the learning camps. Just over half of those targeted assessment requirements were met. Several policies to support improvements in reading, math, and science are pending through 2023.
Lost learning days also compound the problem, as a large portion of the school year is lost to class suspensions due to weather, local holidays, and other disruptions. In some areas, students have already missed more than 40 school days. EDCOM 2 links these absences to a sharp decline in Grade 4 mathematics and science performance.
Selective schools, such as the Philippine Science High School System, face capacity limitations. Between 2022 and 2025, more than 5,800 students who qualified the entrance exam were unable to secure a slot. Private school students passed at higher rates than those in public schools, highlighting concerns about fundamental differences in learning.
The Department of Education (DepEd) launched reforms under the MATATAG curriculum, but schools report delays. As of January 2025, only 35 out of 90 required textbook titles for grades 4 and 7 reach classrooms.
The monitoring of the program also affects students from arts, journalism, languages, sports, science and technical-vocational fields. The EDCOM 2 report shows that many schools run these programs with unclear guidelines or inconsistent resources.
On the other hand, alternative learning systems (ALS) designed to help out-of-school youth and adults are less accessible. Of the estimated 4.9 million out-of-school youth, only about 600,000 enter the program, and only half of those finish. Funding per area remains at P7 million regardless of population size. Many community learning centers operate in temporary locations, and several policy guidelines are pending under the ALS Act of 2020.
College participation is approximately 35%, which is lower than the regional average. The lowest participation is recorded in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Dropout numbers in higher education remain high, with BARMM recording a 93% attrition rate. In many other areas the dropout exceeds 50%.
Free tuition under Republic Act No. 10931 helped more families enter college, but the increase in enrollment brought state universities closer to full capacity. Local universities accept more students, although many offer fewer academic programs.
Tertiary education subsidies adjusted their rules to focus aid on the poorest students. However, cuts in subsidy amounts may limit the courses these students can take, especially those that already have limited slots.
The Higher Education Commission updates program requirements at long intervals. Reviews often occur once every 11 years. Current policies lean towards a single model focused on research output, even though many schools operate on a much smaller scale. Only a small portion of the population enters graduate study, leaving the country's research activity below global and regional averages.
Meanwhile, Filipino students remained among the lowest performers on the Program for International Student Assessment's 2022 Creative Thinking Test, scoring an average of 14 points. This figure placed the Philippines at the bottom among the 64 participating countries.
facing resource shortage
Education expenditure remains 3.6% of GDP, which is below the range advised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. About 5,000 complexes operate without electricity, and about 10,000 have no supply of clean water.
In terms of teacher qualifications, 66% of teachers use low to medium-low levels of effective classroom practices, and no teachers reached high levels of effective pedagogy. A World Bank review reported that a high school mathematics teacher fully answered only 31% of subject-related questions, and about 62% of high school teachers handle classes outside their field of study.
The problem of school space remains widespread, with the country lacking more than 165,000 classrooms. Urban centers deal with overcrowded rooms, while many rural schools rely on old buildings that struggle to withstand the harsh weather. Only about 30% of public school structures are considered to be in good condition. To manage space constraints, many campuses use shifting schedules that divide students into morning and afternoon groups.
Decades of education reform
Since 1946, the administration has attempted to broaden learning opportunities. The 1987 Constitution affirms the right of every learner to a quality education, but improvements in classrooms across the country are slowing due to lack of funding, teacher development and school facilities.
A key measure to close the education gap is the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning Program Act, or ARAL, which aims to help students who struggle with reading and basic math.
The Department of Education aims to align its recovery programs with the ARAL Act. A draft policy integrating the National Reading Program and the National Mathematics Program into a P3 framework to strengthen literacy and numeracy in higher grade levels is undergoing final review.
For early childhood education, the Early Childhood Care and Development System Act directs local governments to establish their own offices, hire permanent child development staff, and upgrade facilities. A joint circular between DepEd and the Department of Budget and Management directs low-income local governments to establish child development centers.
However, national standards for elementary education are still under discussion, and participation is low. Only 1% of children aged 0 to 2 years are enrolled in early education programmes, along with 21% of children aged 3 to 4 years.
The National Learning Recovery Program is the most comprehensive effort to date, reaching more than 2.7 million learners in more than 35,000 schools. A separate tutoring initiative, Tara Basa, supported more than 62,000 students in various fields.
With these initiatives, improvements in initial assessments were reported. English reading proficiency increased by 15% among participating learners, while the number requiring full intervention declined by 32%. The Filipino assessment showed a 25% increase in grade readiness and a 36% drop in those requiring complete refresher.
Investment in teaching materials also increased. By October 2024, more than 7 million science and mathematics instruments, and more than 200,000 technical-vocational instruments had been purchased. Over 49 million textbooks for subjects such as science, social studies and mathematics were also acquired.
Procurement in 2023 and 2024 included more than 22 million units of science and mathematics equipment and more than 779,000 units of technical-vocational equipment. Delivery of textbooks and teaching materials reached more than 58 million. The package included assistive laptops for learners with disabilities as well as over 55,978 information and communication technology packages for schools across the country.
“Education is not the responsibility of just one region,” Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara said in Filipino. “DeepEd works collectively – with government agencies, local governments and the entire community – to protect the future of youth.” , Mihikole A. moral
