The Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) latest bombshell—that 18.96 million Filipino junior and senior high school graduates in 2024 are functionally illiterate, unable to read or comprehend a simple story—isn’t just a crisis; it’s a national scandal that lays bare the grotesque failure of the country’s education system. But as horrifying as that number is, it pales in comparison to the over 30 million Filipinos who, election after election, fail to grasp two simple words: “Vote wisely.” This isn’t just a learning crisis; it’s a societal death spiral, where an illiterate education system and a clueless electorate feed off each other’s dysfunction.

Let’s start with the 18.96 million graduates, products of a Department of Education (DepEd) that seems more interested in churning out diplomas than actual learning. These are young Filipinos who’ve spent years in classrooms yet can’t process a basic narrative. The PSA’s 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) redefined literacy to include higher-level comprehension, and the results are a slap in the face: millions of graduates are functionally useless in a world that demands critical thinking. The DepEd’s response? A shrug, coupled with a curriculum that spoon-feeds rote memorization and teachers too spineless or powerless to enforce discipline. Good Manners and Right Conduct (GMRC) is a distant memory, replaced by a free-for-all where students wield gadgets as weapons of distraction, a habit the pandemic only entrenched.

But the education system’s collapse is just one half of this grotesque equation. The other is a voting population—over 30 million strong—who can’t be bothered to understand the weight of their ballot. “Vote wisely” is a plea so simple it’s almost insulting, yet it’s lost on a populace that repeatedly elects clowns, crooks, and dynastic parasites to Congress and beyond. These are the same legislators who oversee the education budget, who rubber-stamp DepEd’s failures, and who perpetuate a system that produces illiterate graduates while they preen for selfies. The irony is sickening: a functionally illiterate legislature presiding over a functionally illiterate generation.

This isn’t just a failure of policy; it’s a failure of will. The DepEd’s inertia is criminal, but the public’s apathy is complicit. Teachers, underpaid and undertrained, are set up to fail, and the solution isn’t complicated—it’s just expensive. Pay for quality educators, even if it means importing them. Overhaul the curriculum to prioritize critical thinking over regurgitation. Hold students and teachers accountable, and for heaven’s sake, teach kids how to read before handing them a diploma. But none of this will happen when the electorate keeps rewarding mediocrity with power.

The Philippines is trapped in a vicious cycle: an education system that fails its youth, and a voting public that fails its future. The 18.96 million illiterate graduates are a tragedy, but the 30 million who can’t vote wisely are a catastrophe. This nation is sleepwalking toward collapse, and the wake-up call is long overdue. Keep ignoring it, and the next generation won’t just be unable to read—they’ll be too busy applauding the idiots who got them there.(TAMBULI NG BAYAN-Ronnie Estrada) #PhPolitics #Phililliterate #DepEdPhilippines