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THE 2003 FUNCTIONAL LITERACY, EDUCAtion and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) found that around 93 percent of the estimated 62 million Filipinos who were 10 years old and over were basically literate, meaning, they ?can read and write with understanding a simple message in any language or dialect.?
Dr. Norma L. Salcedo, head of the Literacy Coordinating Council, adds that in the same survey, around 49 million out of an estimated 58 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64?or 84 percent?were ?functionally literate,? which connotes the ability to deal with issues like problem-solving and communication, according to the Department of Education.
The United States Department of Education?s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) expands on the definition by saying that literacy is broken down into three parameters?prose, document and quantitative; and that each parameter has four levels?below basic, basic, intermediate, and proficient.
If you can derive simple information from reading a short piece of text, your prose literacy is below basic. On the other hand, your quantitative literacy is below basic if you can only handle simple addition. If you can compare viewpoints in two editorials or interpret a table about blood pressure, age and physical activity, or compute and compare the cost per ounce of food items, the NCES says that you are proficient in all three literacy parameters.
In their work titled ?When Reforms Don?t Transform: Reflections on Philippine Education,? Dr. Alan Bernardo, Dr. Cynthia Bautista and Dr. Dina Ocampo maintain that ?expanded functional literacy will promote transformational citizenship if the texts and materials of our public social life are used as objects of the competencies. As a result, learners will not be mere passive observers of public services and governance. Instead, they will participate in transformative ways; they will learn to understand and analyze, to negotiate and cooperate, and if necessary, to protest and initiate new forms of social participation.?
This leads us to the concept of ?civic literacy.? The term comes from Dr. Henry Milner, a political scientist at the Université Laval in Canada and Umeå University in Sweden and author of ?Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy Work.?
Milner describes civic literacy as ?both an attribute of the individual and an aggregate indicator allowing for the comparison of societies according to the proportion of civically literate individuals?that is, [those] possessing the knowledge required for effective political choice. A country?s level of civic literacy is an indicator of the efficacy of its political knowledge-enhancing institutions. [e.g., the schools].?
Edicio dela Torre of E-Net Philippines warns us that functional illiteracy has been rising over the past six years. This is serious on many levels.
For one thing, this means that our schools are not successfully meeting learning goals. The 2003 FLEMMS results showed that ?of the 34 million population aged 6-24, 34 percent or 11.6 million were not attending school. Of this number, 30 percent were not attending school mainly because they were working or looking for work; 22 percent lacked interest in going to school and 20 percent could not afford the high cost of education.?
Furthermore, the survey said that those who graduated from an elementary school but did not proceed to the secondary level comprised 11 percent. Sixteen percent reached but did not finish high school, while another 16 percent finished high school. Likewise, 16 percent reached college but they either did not complete college (8.3 percent) or actually finished college or any higher level of education (8 percent).
There is clear sociological evidence that the capacity of schools to ensure that students attain the functional literacy required to comprehend the basic texts and documents associated with competent citizenship is a contributing factor to a society?s level of civic literacy.
We all know that education really must go beyond the three Rs. Ms Eggie Apostol, founding chair of the Foundation for Worldwide People Power (FWWPP), has repeatedly called on everyone to use People Power to turn our schools into places that empower our youth with a sense of legacy, purpose and vision.
The FWWPP maintains that the answer lies in a reform movement that is propelled by and draws impetus from the community. Through the
FWWPP?s affiliation with the 5775 Education Reform Alliance, we have been able to nurture partnerships with education stakeholders at both the community and national levels. It is a taxing process, to be sure, and a difficult lesson to learn, but it is a critical one.
Dr. Bernardo argues that ?It is not sufficient to simply equip our students with high level technical knowledge. We must develop in them the motivation and the confidence to apply their mental abilities to transform Philippine society. More importantly, we must develop the belief and the conviction that, yes, they can transform Philippine society.?
Whether we like it or not, the hearts and malleable minds of our youth will be the battleground on which the coming presidential elections will be waged. They will be subjected to all kinds of pressure. Maybe our schools have been unable to prepare them for this awesome task. We have to be there for them.
Butch Hernandez (butchhernandez@gmail.com) is the executive director of the Foundation for Worldwide People Power.
