Baguio is second highest in functional literacy nationwide

Baguio City has the second highest functional literacy rate among highly urbanized cities in the country.According to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s second report on the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), the city posted a 89.8 percent literacy rate next to San Juan City with 94.5 percent.It was trailed by Pasig with 89.1 percent, Pateros (88.1percent), Makati (87.3 percent), City of Las Piñas (87.1 percent), City of Taguig (86.1 percent), City of Mandaluyong (84.6 percent), City of Cagayan de Oro (84.4 percent) and City of Navotas (83.3 percent).

The PSA also reported that out of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) “out of the 17 regions in the Philippines, recorded the highest functional literacy rate in 2024 at 81.2 percent. Among provinces, Benguet had the highest functional literacy rate in the country with 87.9 percent.

The PSA defined functional literacy as “the ability of a person to read, write, compute and comprehend. In addition to the basic literacy skills, functional literacy includes higher level of comprehension skills, such as integrating two or more pieces of information and making inferences based on the given information.”

As to the basic literacy defined as “as the ability of a person to read and write a simple message in any language or dialect with understanding, and to compute or perform basic mathematical operations,” Apayao recorded the highest basic literacy rate among all provinces in the country at 95.2 percent. Benguet came in second at 94.9 percent. CAR posted the second highest basic literacy rate among regions in 2024 at 92.7 percent. – Aileen P. Refuerzo