WHAT IS ILLITERACY?

In general terms, illiteracy is an inability to use language. It is an inability to read, write, listen and speak.
Today, it is usually taken to mean being unable to read and write at a level adequate for written
communication or at a level that will allow an individual to function at certain levels of society. In the
simplest of terms, illiteracy is the opposite of literacy.

WHY IS ILLITERACY A PROBLEM?

Illiteracy is a problem because it inhibits people from communicating efficiently with one another. When
illiteracy is widespread throughout a society, people will have a hard time understanding other people's
thoughts and conveyed messages. Also, many people with low literacy find it hard to do everyday things
that others take for granted such as:

 Parents may not be able to help their children with homework, or to understand letters they
receive from the school.
 People may have difficulty understanding the newspaper, so they don't find out about
important community notices and other information.
 People may have difficulty understanding the newspaper, so they don't find out about
important community notices and other information.

WHO ARE AFFECTED IN ILLITERACY?

SOCIETY. Having low literacy skills affects many aspects of a person's life. It can also affect the lives of
their spouse, children, neighbours, and co-workers. People who have poor literacy skills may have
trouble organizing information, following a line of reasoning and keeping track of a set of instructions.

Illiteracy in the Philippines:

That “community” progressively expanded, based on the country’s literacy data collected through the
national census. Results from the National Statistics Office’s 2010 Census of Population and Housing
(CPH) show that 97.5% of the 71.5 million individuals who are 10 years old and older were literate or
could read and write—an increase from the 2000 CPH record of 92.3%.

Effects of Illiteracy in the Philippines:

 illiteracy has a major effect on the development of the country

 Illiterate people do not have the basic education and the proper simple skills for
them to get employed.
 Due to this lack of skills they are forced to work in jobs that do not require lots
of skills even reading and writing.
 May resulted in POVERTY
 because illiterate people lack education they can be a huge burden on the
country.
 illiteracy has an effect on the people in the society
 affects the life of illiterate parents, where they cannot get good jobs to support
their families
 illiterate parents affect their children

For John Arnold S. Siena, a director for the National Educators Academy of the Philippines, part of
DepEd, the high literacy rate in the country and the 95.24% school participation of children in
elementary schooling were achieved through the campaign of the government, particularly DepEd, to
bring more school-age children to school. He said initiatives that focused on this goal include the
following:

 The Alternative Learning System, which provides opportunity for out-of-school youths to use
the education services of DepEd and take the accreditation and equivalency test, paving the way
for further education
 Open high school and night school opportunities
 Establishment of schools in areas without schools
 The Kindergarten Law, which makes attending kindergarten a requirement

Literacy continues to be a part of the work of SIL internationally and in the Philippines. SIL is involved in
literacy activities which touch the lives of adults, young people and children.

Although the Philippines has a basic literacy rate of more than 88.5%, pockets of illiteracy remain.
According to the Department of Education, there are more than 1 million pre-literates in the country
and more than 6 million people are deemed to be functionally illiterate. Many of these are found among
the indigenous cultural communities where SIL works in association with the Philippines Department of
Education.

Different Organizations that helps the indigenous people improve their literacy:

 MALEI (Matigsalug Literacy Education Incorporated)- oversees the on-going

development of literacy and education among the Matigsalug Manobo of Davao del Norte
and Bukidnon.
 OMALRACDI (Obo Manobo Active Language Resource and Community Development Inc.)-
Under the umbrella of OMALRACDI (Obo Manobo Active Language Resource and Community
Development Inc.), various activities take place in partnership with SIL. These include the
promotion of literacy through equipping Manobos to become literacy teachers and supervisors.
 Tagakaulo Kalagan- The Tagakaulo Kalagan in Sarangani Province and Davao del Sur work in
association with the Department of Education Bureaus of Elementary Education and Alternative
Learning Systems.

“It is through literacy that one is empowered to interact in his community and
realizes his worth, what he can do and eventually make him do things that
contribute in sustainable development of his society,” said Department of
Education’s (DepEd) Literacy Coordinating Council OIC Dina Ocampo in a speech
during the 2014 National Literacy Conference and Awards.
Sources:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/illiteracy\

https://philippines.sil.org/language_development/literacy_education

https://thegreatmind.weebly.com/discussion-on-illiteracy.html

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-daily/2015/08/06/literacy-in-the-philippines-the-
stories-behind-the-numbers

Unemployment in the Philippines

The more probable cause of unemployment in the Philippines is the unavailability of jobs provided jobs.
With a growing population, millions needed jobs but only few can sure provide one. The lack of investors
and businesses that could provide good jobs for the Filipinos is one of the key factors in the growing
unemployment in the Philippines. Another major cause of unemployment in the Philippines, is the lack
of education. With the increasing demands of the fast developing world, it is really hard to find jobs
when you are not graduate of a particular skill or course.

"With the worsening unemployment problem, the number of Filipinos forced to leave the country for
overseasjob will increase to around three to 5 percent from the current base figure of 4,200 daily in two
to 3 year time."

High Unemployment Rate In The Philippines:

 Job – skill mismatch among Filipino graduates

 Lack of quality graduates
 Outdated school curriculum
 Lack of skills and experience
 Lack of understanding about job application
 Discrimination and unreasonable job requirements
 Poverty cycle
 Rapid population growth
The unemployment rate in the Philippines stood at 5.4 percent in the September quarter 2019, the
same pace as in the corresponding period the prior year. The number of unemployed persons edged
down by 0.1 thousand to 2.43 million, while the number of employed grew by 2.3 thousand to 42.95
million. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate increased to 62.1 percent from 60.1 percent a year
ago. Among employed persons, workers in the services sector made up 57.8 percent of the total,
followed by those in the agriculture sector (23.5 percent) and industry (18.7 percent). Unemployment
Rate in Philippines averaged 8.28 percent from 1994 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 13.90
percent in the first quarter of 2000 and a record low of 4.70 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016.
source: National Statistics Office of Philippines

Sources:

https://tradingeconomics.com/philippines/unemployment-rate

https://www.scribd.com/doc/72611153/What-Causes-Unemployment-in-the-Philippines

https://www.pinoy-ofw.com/news/224-reasons-why-philippine-unemployment-rate-is-high.html

Indigenous People in the Philippines and their Rights

Indigenous peoples in the Philippines belong to different ethnic groups and reside in different parts of
the country. There are more than one hundred indigenous communities (NCIP, 2010), about 61% of
whom are in Mindanao, 33% in Luzon, and 6% in the Visayas.

 Indigenous People in Cordilleras in North Luzon= IGOROT. (They belong to different ethnic
groups, such as Bontoc, Ibaloi, Ifugao, Isneg, Kalinga, Kankanaey, and Tingguian). The Gadang,
Ilongot, and Ivatan are found in the Cagayan Valley, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino. The
Negrito groups are found in North, Central, and Southern Luzon. They include the Aeta and
Dumagat.
 In Visayas, The Mindoro island has seven distinct Mangyan groups. Palawan islands have the
Batak, Palawana, and Tagbanwa.
 The indigenous peoples in Mindanao, collectively called Lumad, do not consider the Bangsa
Moro and the Christianized Filipinos as indigenous peoples in view of their adoption of non-
indigenous religions. The major Lumad groups are (1) the Monobo, (2) the Bagobo, B’laan,
T’boli, and Teduray groups, (3) the Mandaya and Mansaka groups, (4) the Subanen, and (5) the
Mamanwa.

Despite the abundance of natural resources around them, the indigenous peoples (IPs) in the
Philippines, like their global counterparts, are ranked among the poorest and most disadvantaged
sector.

They are deprived of rights and opportunities to develop capacities to cope with the fast-changing
social, economic, and political environment. The ILO (International Labour Organization) supports the
empowerment of indigenous women and men through a dual strategy of intervention, promoting
policies to protect their rights, including through the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989
(No.169) and supporting capacity-building initiatives through technical cooperation projects for
indigenous peoples in their ancestral domains.

Many of the 110 ethno-linguistic indigenous groups in the Philippines experience:

 DISCRIMINATION
 DEGRADATION OF RESOURCES BASES
 ARMED CONFLICT

IP communities, generally located in distinct ancestral territories, have high rates of unemployment,
underemployment, and illiteracy. While their socio-economic, cultural, and spiritual lives revolve around
their ancestral domains, indigenous peoples see their ownership of land shrinking and disregarded.

Rights of Indigenous People

Republic Act No. 8371 (October 29, 1997)

AN ACT TO RECOGNIZE, PROTECT AND PROMOTE THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS CULTURAL

COMMUNITIES/INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, CREATING A NATIONAL COMMISSION ON INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES, ESTABLISHING IMPLEMENTING MECHANISMS, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR
OTHER PURPOSES

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1997/10/29/republic-act-no-8371/

Human Rights Violations

The indigenous peoples, to a large extent “forgotten” by the government, are in the midst of problems.
Physical isolation does not shield them from being caught in the crossfire in the on- going armed
conflicts in the country, many suffered as internally displaced persons (IDPs) and some killed or detained
and tortured as suspected members of the armed opposition groups. Lack of access to basic social
services, education, sustainable livelihood, farm-to-market roads, and health services contribute to their
continuing poverty. In many cases, the onslaught of commercialism and modern culture came at the
expense of maintaining their own culture and tradition (and thus their identity).

Sources:

https://www.hurights.or.jp/archives/focus/section2/2010/12/indigenous-peoples-in-the-philippines-
continuing-struggle.html