The Senate Committee on Finance adopted Senator Sherwin Gatchalian’s proposal to increase the budget for the implementation of the Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS).
FLEMMS is a nationwide household-based survey that gathers information on basic and functional literacy rates, as well as educational skills qualifications.
Under the Senate finance committee report on the proposed 2024 national budget, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will receive P208.97 million for the implementation of the FLEMMS.
The amount is 254.3 percent higher than the P58.9 million under the proposed National Expenditure Program.
Gatchalian originally proposed an additional P160 million for the implementation of the FLEMMS next year.
During the hearing on the proposed budget of the PSA, Gatchalian raised the possibility of making the data more granular by conducting the survey all the way up to the city level.
“This will help the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) to identify areas where we have high illiteracy rates, so we can launch programs that will improve education outcomes in those places,” said Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.
“I’m sure that the data and information collected through the FLEMMS will be put to good use by the EDCOM,” he added.
The senator also proposed conducting the FLEMMS more regularly.
The last FLEMMS survey was conducted in 2019, the sixth in the series that started in 1989.
During the hearing on the proposed PSA budget, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said the PSA board will explore the possibility of conducting the FLEMMS more regularly, adding that conducting the FLEMMS every three years could be a “reasonable option.”