The Philippines' National Statistics Office has said eight out of 10 Philippine citizens are functionally literate, the Manila Times reported Saturday.
Functional literacy is defined by the office as the ability to read, write, make computations and understand facts and circumstances.
The NSO's 2003 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey suggested that about 48.4 million people, or 84 percent of the country's 57.6 million, have the skills to survive and compete in the modern world.
The survey showed a 0.2-percent improvement from the 1994 survey, which pegged the country's literacy rate at 83.8 percent.
Manila's National Capital Region had the highest functional literacy rate, 94.6 percent; followed by Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon at 90.4 percent and Ilocos at 88.6 percent. The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao showed the lowest literacy rate at 62.9 percent.
The functional literacy rate among females was 86.3 percent, compared to 81.9 percent for males.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
