According to the 2024 SEA-PLM, 27% of grade 5 students in the Philippines have 'very low' reading proficiency, while 16% have it in mathematics. The report from UNICEF and SEAMEO highlights ongoing educational challenges influenced by factors like socioeconomic status and school location. The Department of Education has yet to respond.
The 2024 Southeast Asian Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM), conducted by UNICEF and SEAMEO, reveals that 27% of grade 5 students in the Philippines fall into Proficiency Band 2 or below in reading, meaning they can only match simple words to illustrations. In mathematics, 16% are in the same low band, indicating basic abilities like counting or adding single digits.
For reading, the breakdown is: 25% in Band 3 (able to read everyday texts fluently and engage with meaning), 21% in Band 4 (understand simple texts), 13% in Band 5 (make connections for key ideas), and 14% in Band 6 and above (handle texts with familiar structures and competing information). Compared to 2019, the lowest band remained at 27%, but higher bands increased, leading to greater dispersion in scores and inequality in learning opportunities.
In mathematics, 17% are in Band 3 (understand place value and measurement scales), 21% in Band 4 (apply number properties and units), 20% in Band 5 (solve arithmetic fluently), 14% in Band 6 (operations with fractions and interpret graphs), 8% in Band 7 (apply fractions, percentages, and analyze data), 3% in Band 8 (think multiplicatively and convert units), and less than 2% in Band 9 and above (reason about triangles and frequency distributions). From 2019, average performance rose slightly, with minimal change in low performers.
Additionally, 14% have very low proficiency in reading only, 2% in math only, and 13% in both. Factors affecting literacy include socioeconomic status, linguistic background, school location, and textbook availability. Regionally, reading skills have stagnated while mathematics has shown improvement in countries like the Philippines and Lao PDR.