Lawmakers warn textbook shortage in Philippine public schools may worsen literacy crisis

Lawmakers have raised concern over the continuing lack of textbooks in Philippine public schools, warning that the problem could deepen the country’s literacy crisis.

At a recent hearing, House of Representatives Deputy Minority Leader Antonio Tinio said the issue goes beyond delays in procurement and points to a broader shift in education policy. According to Tinio, the Department of Education (DepEd) moved away from textbooks under the K-12 curriculum and instead relied on modules and other learning materials that are often delivered inconsistently. In some cases, he said, lessons have been reduced to teacher-made PowerPoint presentations.

“One of the standout data points in the EdCom 2 report is that over more than a decade, DepEd procured only 27 textbook titles,” Tinio noted. While DepEd has since reported that it was able to procure 105 titles in a single school year, Tinio stressed that the deeper issue is not merely administrative.

“EdCom diagnoses it mainly as procurement bottlenecks, and DepEd now says they have solved this,” he said. “But the bigger concern is that this is not only a procurement issue; it is a pedagogical issue.”

The warning comes as the Philippines continues to perform poorly in international reading assessments. In both the 2018 and 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Filipino students ranked at or near the bottom in reading comprehension. A 2024 study by the Second Congressional Commission on Education also found that about 90 percent of Filipino children aged 10 struggle to read.

Tinio argued that textbooks remain essential in building literacy because they allow students to read, review, and study lessons repeatedly at home. Without them, many public school learners are left with only photocopied modules or incomplete materials.

“In private schools, textbooks remained central,” Tinio said. “In public schools, students often have no books to bring home, reread, and learn from. How can we build literacy without sustained exposure to books?”

Rep. Jaime Fresnedi echoed Tinio’s concerns and cited reports from Schools Division Offices showing serious delivery gaps, including some grade levels that received no textbooks at all.

Education officials, for their part, said DepEd has revised its procurement and delivery timeline. The agency is now expecting 31 textbook titles to be delivered before the start of the new academic year, which begins in a little over a month.

Despite this, lawmakers warned that restoring textbook supply must be treated as an urgent priority, especially as the country confronts persistently weak reading outcomes among young learners.

Note: The thumbnail image used in this article was generated using artificial intelligence (AI) for illustrative purposes only. It does not depict a real child, classroom, or specific school, but is intended to visually represent the issue discussed.