Cognitive training may help address functional literacy gap — expert

An education expert said cognitive training that strengthens core learning skills can help improve functional literacy among Filipino learners.

“With functional literacy, there’s a lot of factors that contribute to it, a lot of it could be environment and the learning opportunities that are available to people,” BrainRx Philippines Co-founder and Director of Training Mel L. Sua told BusinessWorld in an interview.

“What we’re seeing is that 80% of the time, (the) cognitive skills contribute to poor grades, they don’t want to read or they just don’t excel in school, and so it becomes a vicious cycle,” she added.

Cognitive training, also known as brain training, is a mental exercise that uses activities such as puzzles and memory games to help improve attention, memory, and problem-solving skills.

“Logical reasoning is one of the things that we target, and apart from that is decoding, getting kids or students to read faster, and the next step is comprehension also,” Ms. Sua said.

Ms. Sua, who is also a cognitive specialist, noted that brain training is different from tutoring and therapy.

“There’s a lot of factors it’s not just cognitive skills, but what we’re seeing is that a lot of them can be addressed with just having stronger cognitive skills,” she said. “We’re developing and strengthening skills needed to learn so when they absorb information from school, it’s easier, better, and faster.”

According to the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), the functional literacy rate in the Philippines rose from 14.5 million three decades ago to 24.8 million in 2024.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers – Philippines (ACT-Philippines) on Friday called the decline a “damning indictment of decades of government neglect and underfunding in education.”

“These staggering numbers represent not just statistics, but millions of Filipinos denied their fundamental right to quality education,” ACT Chairperson Ruby Bernardo said in a statement.

The teachers’ group said that functional illiteracy is due to the “worsening economic conditions” that push students to prioritize survival over schooling, along with shortages of classrooms, teachers, and learning materials.

“No matter how much teachers give their all, functional illiteracy will only worsen if education continues to be starved of funds while billions are funneled into corruption-ridden projects,” she said.

“Learning poverty rates will continue to soar if teachers remain overworked and underpaid, and if schools stay overcrowded, dilapidated, substandard, and deprived of basic teaching and learning materials,” she added. — Almira Louise S. Martinez