The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) attributes the growing number of functionally illiterate graduates to the practice of promoting students despite unmet learning outcomes and a lack of accountability in basic education.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show that 18.96 million students are not "functionally literate." Functional literacy is defined as the ability to read, write, compute, and comprehend.

In a televised interview on 3 May, COCOPEA legal counsel Atty. Joseph Noel Estrada stated that students are often passed from one grade level to another even if they do not meet the required competencies.

“I think, what’s happening is that students are moved from one grade level to the next, and the next set of teachers tries to catch them up through remediation. But as the data shows, it’s not enough. They graduate, but the deficiencies are compounding,” Estrada said.

Structural limitations in public schools also make it difficult to retain students who do not meet competencies, citing issues such as classroom congestion.

He also explained that while private schools are allowed to fail students to enforce their own academic standards, public schools have less flexibility due to the government’s obligation to uphold students’ right to education and provide social services.

“For example, in public schools, a student might already have health issues at the beginning. From the start, they’re unable to study properly and might rely on feeding programs. All these social issues have to be considered,” Estrada said.

“Compared to a private school, social issues of children are taken care of by their parents.”

The COCOPEA legal counsel urged shared responsibility among communities, parents, and students in addressing the issue, emphasizing that students should also be accountable for their learning outcomes.

He expressed support for proposals to focus on fundamental literacies in early education rather than overloading students with numerous subjects.

"Because it’s useless to give a student many subjects if they can’t even understand,” Estrada added.