DepEd to train students in critical thinking, Angara says
The Department of Education will train students in critical thinking to address the problem of functional illiteracy, DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara said on Thursday. — File photo by Niño Jesus Orbeta/Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — To address functional illiteracy among Filipino students, the Department of Education (DepEd) has shifted its focus to training learners to become critical thinkers instead of teaching them to memorize in school.
The move comes a day after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) revealed during a Senate hearing that nearly 19 million senior and junior high school graduates in 2024 are not considered “functionally literate,” which means that they struggle to comprehend a simple story.
DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara on Thursday said he would address this concern by intensifying the department’s interventions, starting from remedial and literacy programs to more effective use of data in each school.
“We have also deepened our teaching and assessment methods. Instead of memorization, we are shaping students to become critical thinkers and have 21st-century skills,” Angara said in Filipino in a statement.
He also emphasized that DepEd is actively working “to correct the past and prepare every child for a stronger future. Ensuring that every Filipino learner is functionally literate is a commitment we owe to our constituents.”
READ: PSA study: 19M senior high school grads ‘functional illiterate’
In the end, Angara said DepEd will do everything in its power to ensure that no Filipino children will be left behind.
“We will not let any child fall behind in reading and understanding. The recent Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey results on functional literacy highlight what we have long recognized—literacy must be at the heart of our education reforms,” said Angara.
PSA earlier defined a functionally literate person as someone who can read, write, compute, and comprehend.
Assistant National Statistician Adrian Cerezo, during the hearing, disclosed that there are about 24.8 million Filipinos in the Philippines who have problems understanding a simple story or even comprehending what they have just read.
