Poor Reading Skills a Local Emergency

More than 1,200 Grade 3 pupils in Iloilo were recently subjected to a reading post-assessment, a move that might seem routine in another context but in the province’s current situation, it was nothing less than a quiet emergency response.

The April 4 activity, part of a pilot program by the Iloilo provincial government and its Education Core (EDCORE) team, was designed not only to measure progress but to validate something far more urgent: our children’s ability to read, understand, and survive a future that will not be kind to non-readers.

The term “national emergency” may sound alarmist, but Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. is not exaggerating.

The data from the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) is devastating. More than 75 percent of Iloilo’s 180,000 schoolchildren were tagged as below-average readers, frustrated readers, or non-readers in school year 2022–2023. This means three out of every four pupils may not be functionally literate.

This is now a public crisis that cuts across labor, productivity, health, local governance, and national competitiveness.

What’s disturbing is how quietly the problem crept in. And how quietly we have tolerated it.

In many schools, learners go through grade levels with minimal ability to decode words, let alone grasp the meaning behind them. Some cannot even recognize basic Filipino or English phrases.

The reading crisis is not confined to Iloilo, but the province is one of the few local governments that have openly declared it a priority.

The pre- and post-assessment method, along with the distinction between experimental and control groups, shows a level of seriousness absent in many national interventions.

The declaration of poor reading proficiency as a provincial emergency forces the public to reconsider its priorities.

If our children cannot read, how do we expect them to learn science? To understand instructions? To fill out job applications? To cast a ballot?

In recent years, the Department of Education has released layered reforms, including the recalibration of the K-12 curriculum and the rollout of the MATATAG agenda.

But these measures, while well-intentioned, often suffer from bureaucratic lag, lack of support systems, or worse—poor implementation.

Iloilo’s initiative, on the other hand, is grounded in data and local ownership.

The 2024 post-assessment was not conducted in a vacuum. It follows the 2023 training of more than 100 elementary school teachers from 11 pilot municipalities and the distribution of tailored reading workbooks.

The province also tapped Synergeia Foundation, an education-focused nonprofit, to help craft and support its intervention framework.

The mayors of the 20 municipalities involved have publicly committed to making reading proficiency a local development agenda. This is the kind of leadership that puts LGUs at the frontline of solutions.

Still, these efforts, as promising as they are, remain fragile.

Without consistent funding, institutional backing from school divisions, and long-term planning beyond election cycles, the gains could be reversed or diluted.

The Province of Iloilo is setting a precedent: that education—especially literacy—need not wait for Metro Manila to make the first move.

In fact, the most effective responses are often local, community-driven, and data-anchored. But if we are to sustain this momentum, we must push beyond the pilot.

The results of the post-assessment should be released publicly and disaggregated by town, by gender, and by socioeconomic status to inform targeted policy adjustments.

Successful teaching strategies and materials must be institutionalized, not left to the whim of whoever sits in Capitol.

LGU budgets should include permanent allocations for early-grade reading programs, teacher capacity-building, and parental engagement.

There must also be space for feedback from teachers on the ground, who are the real foot soldiers of this reform.

Above all, the public must stay awake.

Because this emergency, unlike floods or earthquakes, does not shake houses or wash away roads. Its damage is invisible. But it is far more lasting.

The inability to read is the inability to participate in society. And if we let that slide, we are not just failing schools—we are failing an entire generation.