EDITORIAL — Literacy and urgency

During her recent visit to Cebu City for the National Literacy Conference at DepEd-7’s Ecotech Center in Barangay Lahug, Vice President and concurrent Department of Education Secretary Sara Carpio said literacy is crucial in unlocking opportunities and empowering individuals, and also paving the way for peace and prosperity in the country.

She added that functional literacy “goes beyond reading and writing” and that it "entails skills to apply it to real life situations, equip individuals to make informed decisions, communicate effectively and actively participate in the workforce and society."

During the same speech she said, there is a need to invest in infrastructure, technology and resources to bridge the educational gap between urban and rural areas.

We cannot agree more about her statements regarding literacy. Being able to read and write already goes a long way to allowing someone to understand and communicate ideas. Being able to read and write exceptionally well allows one to influence others and effect needed change, and also to access opportunities usually not available to others.

We hope that with her words, Vice President Carpio will soon address the elephant in the room when it comes to our pupils and students; the low scores they have been getting in math, science, and reading when rated by international learning organizations.

The scores were already low enough before the pandemic hit in 2020, forcing many to revert to remote methods of learning. From what we have seen we are sure that that method didn’t improve the situation at the time. We have yet to fully see how this impacted the learning of our pupils and students.

As to her statement regarding the gap between rural and urban areas, we all know it’s there; the farther an area is from government units, or the lesser it gets in basic services, the more disadvantaged the students are when it comes to the quality of teachers, facilities, and even learning and development opportunities.

Given her shenanigans with wanting to play cloak-and-dagger with a department not really suited for security or espionage, Vice President Carpio actually seems to be familiar with what ails our educational system.

We would love to see her act on these problems as soon as possible.