According to figures published in 2005 the literacy rate in the Philippines was 84%. Looking at the data over the years it would be fair to assume that current literacy rate is now around 90%.
Defining literacy can be an art in itself but the 2005 National Statistics Office survey used information on people aged between 10 and 64 years of age. The degree of literacy is another area that can be debated but the definition used was functionally literate. It can be assumed that the standard of this definition has risen over time with the term functionally requiring a higher level of literacy than it did 30 or 40 years ago.
In the 1960s and 1970s literacy levels were in the low 70s in terms of percentages. There are no instant remedies for this with many industries at the time, largely agricultural not requiring high levels of literacy. With strong education programs at the time increasing literacy levels those results began to feed into the surveys as a new literate generation emerged.
Whilst a national figure of 90% is accurate at the moment there can be large variations within that figure. Female literacy was found to be 4.8% higher than in males with similar differences found between different areas of the country with higher levels of literacy recorded in urban areas than in rural. Literacy and wealth are inevitably connected, the areas with the highest literacy rates also contain the highest wealth levels.
- Definition
Defining literacy can be an art in itself but the 2005 National Statistics Office survey used information on people aged between 10 and 64 years of age. The degree of literacy is another area that can be debated but the definition used was functionally literate. It can be assumed that the standard of this definition has risen over time with the term functionally requiring a higher level of literacy than it did 30 or 40 years ago.
- History
In the 1960s and 1970s literacy levels were in the low 70s in terms of percentages. There are no instant remedies for this with many industries at the time, largely agricultural not requiring high levels of literacy. With strong education programs at the time increasing literacy levels those results began to feed into the surveys as a new literate generation emerged.
- Breakdown
Whilst a national figure of 90% is accurate at the moment there can be large variations within that figure. Female literacy was found to be 4.8% higher than in males with similar differences found between different areas of the country with higher levels of literacy recorded in urban areas than in rural. Literacy and wealth are inevitably connected, the areas with the highest literacy rates also contain the highest wealth levels.
- Future trends
